Hoole Road

From Hoole Bridge to Lightfoot Street

Earl of Shrewbury's Lands 1789

The Earl of Shrewsbury was Lord of the Manor of Hoole from 1510 and the earliest Estate Plan (extract shown) outlines his lands here in 1789. The ancient bridge crossing Flookersbrook can be seen on its western edge as can 'The Ermine', the isolated building to the north. The schedule with the Plan states that there were houses here and the tenant of Plots 1 & 2 was William Hale, a butcher.

Hoole’s Tithe Map, some 50 years later, provides more detail. Close to the bridge was the aptly named Bridge Cottage leased to Thomas Bowers, a druggist whose warehouse fire in 1828 threatened to destroy the heart of Chester; he sub-let the Cottage to William Darlington, a smith and wheelwright in Canal Street; unfortunately it was in the path of the railway line into Chester Station and was demolished.

The next property to the east was Brook Lodge and its Tithe Map tenant, John Broster, a printer and publisher described it in the Chester Guide 1828 as follows:

“Brook Lodge in the village of Flookersbrook is an object well worthy of notice for the quantity of ancient carved work it contains. The portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh and his Lady with the family arms are inserted in the front door.”

When the railway companies acquired land on the western border of Hoole & Newton, they diverted and culverted Flookersbrook in order to build the General Railway Station, Brook Lodge was included in their purchase and they continued to lease it, their occupant in 1841 being George Pickering, who was the drawing master of Chester; he held painting classes here and is remembered for his pictures of Lady Broughton’s garden at Hoole House. In 1851 Edward C. Walker was the tenant. Then aged 25, occupation lead merchant, he went on to run the Lead Works.

The railway companies then used Brook Lodge for their employees; in 1861 it was the home of Robert Lewis Jones, the Station’s General Manager, and in the 1870s and 80s, William Comber, their Goods Manager lived there. It was eventually converted into offices. The Hoole Entrance to the Station was built on its land in 1893 (see Hoole Bridge article).

Hoole entrance to Chester Station, Newsagent, 'The Grange', and the roof of 'Brook Lodge'

Brook Lodge was the original No.1 Hoole Road and next door Flookersbrook House was No.3. This was re-named The Grange and still stands today, re-numbered as No. 1. Early maps show the properties side by side with large ornamental gardens. In 1851 John Maddock, a tallow chandler, was in residence followed by John Tatlock, a solicitor and Coroner for the City of Chester. Henry Taylor, a coal merchant lived there in 1864 and the Du Paget family were residents during the 1870’s. By 1881, Richard Grandidge, a wealthy timber merchant and sometime Chairman of Hoole Urban District Council acquired the property; he re-named it The Grange and added the entrance porch, spire and weathervane dated 1897 which we can see today.

The garden of 'The Grange' on the corner of Lightfoot Street

During the 20th century, The Grange had a number of different tenants. In 1926 a newsagent, tobacconist and confectioner shop was built in its grounds adjacent to the Hoole Station Entrance, run until the 1960s by Hardcastles and then by the Eatons. The Grange Café was also there. At the same time the potential of its gardens on the corner of Lightfoot Street as a retail site was recognised and the shops we see today were built. Over the years their traders changed frequently. Trades included a butcher, boots & shoe repairer, mantle supplier, fruiterers and florists, gramophones and cycle shops. For many years the corner shop was run by Austins the drapers; the authors first suit (for a family wedding) was purchased from there some 65 years ago on hire purchase for half a crown (12.5 pence) a week.

Lightfoot Street to the Shell Garage

The Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Shrewsbury, owned this land and on the 1789 plan of his Estates, the western part (No.3 [see above]) was rented to Edward Ommanney Wrench the owner of Dee Mills which burnt down in 1789. Ommanney Wrench was a Lt. Colonel in the Royal Chester Regiment of Local Militia and there is a large memorial to him in Chester Cathedral. The eastern part (No.4) was rented to the Artingstall family, who ran the Ermine Hotel. John Lightfoot (1758 to 1832) married Mary, the widow of John Artingstall, the Landlord, in 1783. He then became the Landlord from 1786 to 1818. John Lightfoot eventually owned a number of properties in Flookersbrook and must have acquired this land from the Earl of Shrewsbury. Following John Lighfoot’s death in 1832, research suggests that the land rightfully belonged to his Trustees, although the Tithe Map Records (c.1839) show the land to be in the ownership of his son-in-law, Thomas Walker.

Town Plan 1874

The prominent property on the land rented by Edward Ommanney Wrench was the western facing Ashtree House which was set in extensive grounds. William Williams who ran the Flookersbrook Tanyard for Thomas Walker was also his tenant at Ashtree House. After his death in 1860 his wife continued to live there. However, by 1878, Ashtree House had become a Ladies School run by Mrs. Thomas whose husband, Thomas Lloyd Thomas was a newspaper reporter. When Tomlinson Street was built in the 1880’s the house was demolished.

The earliest record of a licensed premises appears in an 1857 Directory. The 1861 Census lists the Globe Tavern run by Robert Hand, who was described as a “railway servant and beerhouse keeper”. An application for a fuller licence in 1884 revealed that The Globe had been replaced by a new hotel called The Beehive. This was owned by Thomas Henry William Walker, an architect from Liverpool. Together in partnership with his brother, John Lightfoot Walker, he also owned the Lion Brewery in Pepper Street, Chester. They were the great grandsons of John Lightfoot and the grandsons of Thomas Walker. Refusal for the fuller licence resulted in a fresh application in 1886 which described The Beehive as “picturesque and pretty and having 8 bedrooms and stabling for four horses”.

During the application, it was revealed that T.H.W. Walker was the owner of land on either side of The Beehive. As an architect, he probably designed the new hotel and the houses built on either side (the terrace to the west was named Brookside Villas to the east was Hawthorne Villas). The application was again refused apparently on a technicality, but opposition from The Ermine and from the abstinence movement no doubt played a large part in the decision.

A chronology of events:

• Between 1876 and 1885 newspaper adverts for The Lion Brewery show G.F. Clough as the proprietor, but in an 1882 advert John Lightfoot Walker appears as Managing Partner.
• September 1884 - Licensing Sessions Chester Castle. Application made for full licence for The Beehive. Mr Thomas Walker, Architect, Liverpool the owner – refused.
• August 1885 - Public Notice. T. H. W. Walker, J. L. Walker & G. F. Clough dissolved their partnership in The Lion Brewery – G. F. Clough withdrawing.
• May 1886 - Hoole Local Board Minutes. Plans of houses to be erected by Mr Walker on the corner of Lightfoot Street but facing the main (Hoole) road were approved.
• September 1886 - Licensing Sessions Chester Castle. Re-application made for full licence. "A former beerhouse has been rebuilt as a small hotel in the semi-rural district of Flookersbrook ... the house was picturesque and pretty having eight bedrooms ... stabling for four horses had been built". "The owner had bought adjoining property and was building on it five houses ... on the other side a similar number of houses had already been built".
• September 1886 - Flookersbrook Improvement Bill. Plan shows "Five houses being built".
• December 1888 - Liverpool Mercury. Partnership in The Lion Brewery dissolved - T. H. W. Walker retired.
• August 1890 - Change of Licence Application for The Beehive. "T. H. W. Walker, 39 Kelvin Grove, Prince's Park, Liverpool is the owner and J. L. Walker of The Lion Brewery is the Lessee".
• July 1893 - John Lightfoot Walker sells The Lion Brewery to Thomas Montgomery.

The Beehive Public House on Hoole Road

The name ‘The Beehive’ first appears in 1869 when the Innkeeper was William Smith. It was Albert Bailey, the Landlord in 1884, who first applied for a full licence. Over the next 30 years there were to be 9 different Licensees. T.H.W. Walker withdrew from his Lion Brewery partnership in 1888 and his brother sold the business to Thomas Montgomery in 1893. The Lion Brewery continued to supply the beer until it was taken over by Bents Brewery in 1903.

List of Landlords at The Beehive:

(Periods of Tenure based on recorded incidents and not always exclusive)

• 1857 to 1864   Robert Hand (The Globe Inn)
• 1869 to 1881   William Smith
• 1883 to 1886   Albert Bailey
• 1887                Miss Ann Powell married to become Mrs. Evans
• 1888                Charles Hampson
• 1889 to 1891   Samuel Blount Jackson
• 1892 to 1896   W.J. Armstrong
• 1897 to 1899   Christopher Mulligan
• 1900                Sarah Ann Watts
• 1902                James Ernest Galt
• 1903 to 1906   William Arthur Farmerey (wife died mysterious death from strychnine)
• 1911                John Charles Grimes
• 1914 to 1939   George Albert Jones
• 1940                Alan James Earle
• 1940 to 1942   Martha Florence Earl
• 1952                William Ross

Cab Drivers' Dinner 1869

Sale of Samuel Weaver's Effects

The 1891 Licensing Register shows that The Beehive had “6 beds for travellers and accommodation for supplying refreshments for 30 people”. Functions were held at the Hotel and the annual supper of “Railway Bus and Cab Drivers” was held from 1869 onwards, presided over by Mr. Samuel Weaver, whose cab and posting business effects were sold by auction there in 1895.

Licensing Application 1892 (part 1)

Coroners’ Inquests took place and when Chester Football Club played at the Tomkinson Street ground The Beehive was used for changing purposes. During the First World War, Hoole Urban District Council distributed surplus sugar from here to soft fruit growers for the making of preserves and jams [see Hoole Allotments article].

                        

Licensing Application 1892 (part 2)

Another application for a full licence was made in 1892 prior to the Royal Agricultural Show being held in Hoole in the following year. The only opposition was from The Ermine Hotel. However, in spite of support from the Chairman and several Members of the Hoole Local Board, and a petition signed amongst others by the Rector of Plemstall and the Church Wardens of All Saints Church, the application was refused. This was probably due to the advice of Colonel Cope, on behalf of the Police, that the full licence was not required.

 

The occupants of Brookside Villas and Hawthorn Villas were mainly from the professional classes - clergy, surveyors, auditors and doctors and dentists. Some of the houses were used as surgeries. From 1900 the properties were assimilated into the numbering of Hoole Road and lost their identities. Before the advent of the big banks further along Hoole Road, the need for banking services for the working man had been recognised by the Chester & North Wales District Savings Bank and their Hoole branch was built into the fabric of No.13. It eventually became Lloyds TSB and for many years the clock in its window was the only public time piece in Hoole to rival that on the steeple of All Saints Church.

Time has not stood still; the bank has closed, and The Beehive is now a branch of 'Richer Sounds'.

The Shell Garage site – Moor House and Moor Park

Lands for sale in Hoole in 1852

Documents in the Cheshire Record Office (D3449) enable the history of this side of Hoole Road as far as Canadian Avenue to be traced. In 1708, the Mayor of Chester leased two fields on Hoole Rake (Hoole Road) and St. Ann’s Rake (Hoole Lane) for 99 years to Thomas Kelsall of Mickle Trafford. In 1721 the land on the two Rakes was divided into several fields including Golden Grove. At this time Thomas Kelsall re-assigned the residue of the Lease to Richard Gildart of Liverpool. In subsequent years the Lease was sublet and transferred on several occasions. It was eventually owned by the Rathbone family from the Wirral. The illustration below shows these fields which were advertised for sale in 1852. The red area became Moor Park and the green area became Golden Grove. This stretched from Hamilton Street to Canadian Avenue and included the site of All Saints Church. The field on Hoole Lane was coloured yellow.

Bryant's Map 1831 showing the location of Brook Cottage

A daughter of the Rathbones, Mary Wilson, inherited the land; her husband died and Thomas Tolver (1752-1828) befriended her. The 1789 Cowdroy’s Directory lists him as a gentleman owning lands in Hoole. He was however described by his grandson, Sir James Paget (1814-1899) who became an eminent surgeon, as being “a kind of self elected fine gentleman, highly self estimated, who never engaged himself in business. He married a rich widow and lived on the remains of her property, helped later in life by that of an old lady who lived with him and two of his daughter – Maria and Francis – who had incomes of their own.” Thomas Tolver benefited from the inheritance of Mary Wilson in 1797 and himself came to own the lands; he was declared bankrupt in 1800 when he was living at Brook Cottage in Flookersbrook where he died in 1828.

Tithe Map Apportionments c.1839

The lands previously owned by Mary Wilson were then inherited by Thomas Tolver’s three daughters – Sarah Elizabeth (Paget) (1778-1843), Francis, also known as Fanny (Bagnall) (1772-1851) and Maria Jane (Moor) (1781-1859). The Tithe Maps c.1839 show that the plots of land on the south side of Hoole Road were owned by Francis Bagnall and some of the eastern plots were held jointly with William Hamilton. This was because the Hamilton family in 1808-9 had purchased the vested and contingent estate of the remaining children of the Burrows and Tonna families who at some stage had been tenants.

Francis Bagnall was also the owner of a house and gardens and the 1841 Census and an 1848 Directory show that this was Brook Cottage. She died in 1851 but the Census of that year shows that her sister, Maria Moor was living with her.

Census 1841

Census 1851

   

During the early 1850s the lands were sold and by 1853 Maria Moor had given her name to Moor Park which went as far as Hamilton Street. The successive advertisements show how the land was eventually marketed as being of superior quality, with good drainage. It was to be a private gated development and this explains why there are gate posts to Derby Place, Stone Place and Westminster Road, which also had a boundary wall across it (see Westminster Road article). Beyond that, the fields were listed as Golden Grove.

Advertisment for Moor Park Land March 1852

Advertisment for Moor Park Land October 1853

           

George Meakin, a railway contractor, who had worked for Thomas Brassey on the construction of the new Chester General Railway Station bought a large plot on which The Elms was built. Brook Cottage was demolished to make way for Moor House, which was described in the advert for its auction in 1859 following Maria Moor’s death as a “genteel private residence with exterior gardens and pleasure grounds”.

Moor House. Built 1850. Front View 1950s

Moor House. Built 1850. Rear View 1950s

         

Ordinance Survey Map 1875

Sale of Moor House and effects 1859 (1)

Sale of Moor House and effects 1859 (2)

Both Francis Bagnall and Maria Moor were wealthy ladies, prominent in subscribing to local causes, which included a donation to the building of Christ Church School in Peploe Street (opened 1857) and the Patriotic Fund. In 1816, they both marched in the first procession of the Flookersbrook, Newton & Hoole Friendly Society from Flookersbrook to the Cathedral; they were still taking part in the Friendly Society marches in 1840 when Francis was 68 and Maria was 60. Frances Bagnall’s husband was Charles Bagnall who died in 1849 aged 60; they were estranged and the record of his burial in St. Mary’s, Lambeth, show his abode as being ‘The Workhouse’. Maria Moor’s husband, Henry, was a naval officer who served under Sir Thomas Trowbridge and was lost at sea in the Indian Ocean. Their son, Henry Trowbridge Moor (1803 to 1837) was a Doctor and Physician at Chester Infirmary. He died aged 34 “cut off in the opening of his professional career by fever caught in attendance on the poor” (Memorial inscription Chester Cathedral).

     

Subscription List Christ Church School 1852 (1)

Subscription List Christ Church School 1852 (2)

The Trustees of Maria Moor sold Moor House to George Haworth in March 1860, a colliery owner from Tryddyn; he appears there in the 1861 Census and he was a partner in a number of mining ventures in North Wales; he died in 1865. The occupants of Moor House for the next fifteen years were the Wimperis family. The father, Edmund Richard was the Chief Accountant at the Leadworks and one of his sons, Edmund Morison Wimperis became a well-known artist; Edmund never lived at Moor House but was brought up in a cottage at the Leadworks where at that time his father was a mere clerk. Other members of the family were also artistic. Edmund Richard was the Chairman of the Hoole Local Board in 1873, and he was a Guardian of the Poor; he died in 1879.

Census 1881 showing pupils at Moor House School (1)

Census 1881 showing pupils at Moor House School (2)

By the time of the 1881 Census, Moor House had become a boarding school run by Thomas L. Thomas and his wife Emily, which had 15 pupils, mainly girls and 4 teachers. (The Thomas’s had previously run a school at Ash Tree House and went on to run another school in Boughton).

By 1891 it was again a private house occupied by Thomas Smith, a draper; in 1893 he was fined 10 shillings and costs for keeping a dog without a license. In the 1901 Census, Joshua Taylor (a railway agent) was the occupant and his widow, Elizabeth Dinel continued to live at Moor House until the 1940s.

Moor House (plain chimney) at the end of Hawthorn Villas

In the early 1950s, Ernest Newport and his son-in-law George Kimpton were recorded as living there and they converted it to become Moor Guest House.

The Filling Station on Hoole Road before its opening in 1963

It was demolished in 1963 when the Shell Filling Station was built on the site. An article on 'Moor House in the 1950s and 1960s' provided by Damian Kimpton is attached.