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Who Lived Where – The George

Reading time: 12 min(s)

This work forms part of the ‘Who Lived Where’ research project. The information provided below was researched by Lee Sugden who currently owns and resides in the property.

Images used in this project have been kindly provided by Lee Sugden unless otherwise stated.

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The George, Lower Mill Bank Road

The George is one of the older houses of Mill Bank with the earliest dated reference in the mid 1750’s in the ownership of SAMUEL HILL. The reference is on the Samuel Hill property list, which written in his own hand, provides details of all the property that he owned at that time.

Samuel Hill was a pre-eminent entrepreneur and mill owner in the area. Find out more and read an account of his work.

An extract of the property listing is below with the reference to The George.

Samuel Hill’s handwritten property list circa 1760.

Samuel Hill’s handwritten property list circa 1760

The property list refers to The George as “Wilson land on George, seven cottages there” and the tenant of this as Thomas Knutton (see red highlights in previous image), who was residing at Damside at the time. The seven cottages are occupied by “myself” as in Samuel Hill, a rather odd reference and one whose meaning is not clear.

The phrasing on the property list suggest the land could have been called The George and the current property was one of the seven properties there. It is possible the name of the land extended to the property in time and this is how it came to be known.

An alternative theory is the name The George could have originated from the property being an Alehouse, although no records to support this have been found to date. It is quite possible this story has merit. The George is situated in Mill Bank and in the mid 1700’s this was the route from Halifax to Rochdale crossing Blackstone Edge.

It is difficult to think this little village was once the main road carrying all traffic between the two towns.

The map below from 1772 shows the main road heading through Mill Bank with a dotted line showing the route of the intended new road through to Ripponden.

Map from 1772 showing the main road heading through Mill Bank with a dotted line showing the route of the intended new road through to Ripponden.

The County of York Survey’d in MDCCLXVII, VIII, IX, and MDCCLXX. 1772 Thomas Jefferys

This new road came about as a result of the existing Turnpike being improved as traffic increased, and as this map shows, by 1794 the road had been built.

This new road will have taken much of the traffic from the old road and could explain why by 1782 The George was referenced in documents as “now cottages”. Perhaps its use as an Alehouse has ended?

Map from 1794 showing the road between Mill Bank and Ripponden had been built.

A New Map of the Country Round Manchester. 1794 John Stockdale

In 1872 The George was sold and in the advert was referred to as both a tenement1 and a messuage2 with two crofts thereto belonging, adding “now converted into several cottages”.

This suggests The George was an area of land that included several houses and small farms (crofts). This aligns with the Samuel Hill property list that refers to The George as having several houses there.

(1)In 1782 a tenement was something that was held rather than owned, so suggests it was rented.(2)A messuage is property and outbuildings with land.

It seems sensible to conclude that as the older houses got demolished, the last standing property on the land was ended up being referred to as what we now know as The George.

We certainly know by the 1861 census the property as it is today was called The George and comprised of four cottages.

In 1759 SAMUEL HILL died and left his estate to his granddaughter, BETTY NUTTALL HILL.

His affairs and will were complex, as was his relationship with his son (and business partner) Richard Hill. Sam did not agree with Richard’s lifestyle and living arrangements and so wrote him out of his will!

When Betty died in 1772 without children, the Samuel’s legacy reverted to a group of Trustees who he had appointed as custodians just for this eventuality. The ultimate decision on inheritance were not settled until 1793 when the will was heard in the Chancery, London.

However, before the will was finally settled, the Trustees sold a section of the estate in 1782. The sale was advertised in the Leeds Intelligencer and is shown in the extract below.

Advert in the Leeds Intelligencer newspaper from 1782 showing part sale of Samuel Hill's estate.

Leeds Intelligencer, 8 October 1782

At the sale, the property was purchased by REV W DOWNES as part of Lot 14.

We pick up the story of the house ownership again in 1872 when MR HENRY MITCHELL and THOMAS CRABTREE sold the The George to MR ELI HOYLE for £300.

Henry and Thomas were also involved in the division of Damside in 1871 and so it seems likely the Lot originally purchased by Rev W Downes in 1782 was divided up around 100 years later with Henry Mitchell and Thomas Crabtree playing a key role.

The Hoyles were to own The George for the next 64 years.

MR ELI HOYLE was a slater and plasterer, and he was the son of George Hoyle who lived at Lower Deerplay.

In 1888 ELI HOYLE sold The George to his father GEORGE HOYLE SNR for £400. George lived at Lower Deerplay and as well as being listed as a slater/plasterer he is also a farmer of 18 acres, a figure reduced from the 1861 record of him having 30 acres.

On the 6 June 1901 GEORGE HOYLE SNR died and The George passed to his sons SAMUEL and ARTHUR HOYLE

In 1908 SAMUEL and ARTHUR HOYLE sold The George to their brother GEORGE HOYLE JNR for £1,300. George Hoyle Jnr was a successful Doctor who lived in Elland.

GEORGE HOYLE JNR bought The George as an investment and leased it to THOMAS DIXON and GILBERT TAYLOR BEATTON (fellow medical doctors) in the same year for £800, for which he provided a mortgage and received £8 per year.

Times in Mill Bank at the turn of the 20th century were very difficult. Kebroyd Mills had gone bankrupt and many of the residents were unemployed. Mill Bank had been a growing place in the 19th century with homes, chapels and schools all being built to provide for the growing workforce needed in the mills.

By 1908 things were very different and it is likely the investment they made in The George was proving difficult to make a return.

THOMAS DIXON died on 15 May 1916 and JAMES HUTCHINSON and WILLIAM BEDFORD were benefactors of his estate. It seems clear they could not make The George work as an investment and in 1920 the mortgage was redeemed and DR GEORGE HOYLE JNR got The George back.

In 1921 DR GEORGE HOYLE JNR sold The George to his nephews, brothers GEORGE HERVEY HOYLE and JOHN SELWYN HOYLE for £410.

GEORGE HERVEY HOYLE died in 1934 and his wife NORAH HOYLE inherited his stake in The George.

In 1936 JOHN SELWYN HOYLE and NORAH HOYLE sold The George to JOE WILDE and ALEX SWALE for £415 with the help of a £300 mortgage from the Sowerby Bridge Industrial Society.

Joe Wilde appears to be the first person who owned The George to actually live here. Joe lived in number 40 and was a textile warehouseman. Up to this point nearly everyone who has lived in the four cottages worked in the local mills.

In the 1911 census a total of 17 people lived in the four cottages, with all the households working in the cotton mills. At number 46 was Joseph Carter who was the Caretaker of the chapel, but all his children worked in the mills.

In 1901, in number 40 The George, a two-up two-down house that shared an outside toilet with number 42, a total of 10 people lived there with four children under 10.

In 1948 JOE WILDE and ALEX SWALE sold the properties as two separate sets of cottages.

40/42 sold to NORMAN HAIGH, RACHEL HAIGH for £230.

44/46 sold to JOHN CHEETHAM for £215.

In 1950 NORMAN HAIGH, RACHEL HAIGH sold 40/42 The George to JOHN CONNELL and MARTHA CONNELL for £155, a 30% drop in value in just two years probably a reflection of Mill Bank at the time.

Also in 1950, the Halifax Building Society repossessed 44/46 The George and sold it for £170 to JOHN CONNELL and MARTHA CONNELL, thereby bringing the two houses back under the same ownership.

In 1958 following the passing of JOHN CONNELL all four properties of The George were sold to MR & MRS ZENON NAWOJCZYK for £425.

MR NAWOJCZYK is recorded as being a textile operative, and while not living at The George they have the means to be property investors.

Perhaps this says something more about Mill Bank at the time rather than the status of Mr Nawojczyk. The average house in 1960 cost £2,000 so at £425 for four houses at The George, you get a clear impression of the deprived nature of the houses and Mill Bank.

In 1964 MR & MRS ZENON NAWOJCZYK sold The George in two parts.

Number 44 was sold to the tenant EDNA IVES.

The remaining three properties were sold for £400 to MRS JESSIE FOX who subsequently moved into number 40.

In 1969 GEOFFREY IVES sells number 44 to MRS JESSIE FOX and once again all four properties are back in the same ownership.

In 1970 MRS JESSIE FOX sells The George to MR RAYMOND CROSS, a local builder for £900.

It is not clear if RAYMOND CROSS did indeed renovate the properties, but in 1975 he sold The George to KENNETH DEARDEN for the princely sum of £7,500 (for four cottages) still well below the average house price at the time of £9,500.

It was around this time that Mill Bank had been classified as a General Improvement Area with the council building new properties, and in 1976 the village was classed as a conservation area.

KENNETH DEARDEN extensively remodelled The George creating two cottages (as they are today) and also introducing a door to 40/42 to the road side of the house. The picture below from the 1975 renovation shows 40/42 with no door to the road side.

House frontage for 40/42 The George before the door was added to the road side on Lower Mill Bank Road.

To the rear of the property the two entrances to 40 and 42 were reduced to just one with the white door that accessed number 42 being bricked up.

See the before and after pictures from 1975 below.

BEFORE:

Photograph showing two entrances to the rear property of 40/42 The George.


AFTER:

Photograph showing one entrance to the rear property of 40/42 The George has now been bricked up.

In 1988 the two cottages were listed as Grade II. The listing makes particular reference to the external stonework.

In the 1990’s, number 40/42 was renovated again with the living space being moved to the ground floor and bedroom space moved upstairs. This is how the property remains today.

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