Brookhouse about 1900

This is first photo thats I have. The date unknown. Brookhouse is lower left. The bottom of hill. Peel Tower is the distance.

Brookhouse, taken from the Greenmount side.
Brookhouse is the furthest building.  The girls are standing on the old bridge.
It was replaced with a wider bridge.
The nearer buildings were cottages and one looks like a shop.
My family remembers these cottages. I feel that the line of the road has not changed. The road widening must have been on the left.

This photo is of Brookhouse near Tottington. I moved here when I was 5. Lived initialy with my Grandmother. Jane Lomax nee Dunn(e). The postal address was 133 Holcombe Rd, Tottington. The cobbled road was replaced with a tarmacadamed surface. The view looks towards "Totty" from the Greenmount side of the stream. The upwards slope is called Stormer Hill. There are some steps leading up on the right to Kay's cottages. They were designed by my Grandfather Tom Lomax, Jane's husband. The Bridge was widened, and the cottages demolished. There are 3 children in the picture a small boy? is leaning against the entrance to the house. From the back of the photographer the road bends up towards Greenmount, but it splits to the right and heads towards Greenmount Golf Club. More info to follow. But who are the people in the photograph? The First entrance looks like a shop. In front of the end gable of Brookhouse is a pathway that crossed a bridge and continued up Hollymount lane. Hollymount convent was a school when I remembered it. It was later turned into an old folks home. The field at the lefthand side of the road belonged to Bernard Ellis of Brookhouse Farm. He bred Arabian horses. He also kept guinea fowl and he paid me real money to collect the eggs. They laid anywhere. But mostly by the side of the stream.

Looking down from Stormer Hill,
The Gent in the photo is where the first photo is taken

Opposite Brookhouse was a large garden. The family gardened there for 3 generations. Frank Lomax, Jane Lomax and my mother and father. My father was partial to Himalayan plants. He grew the first blue poppies that anyone had seen in the Bury area. A large lawn on the upper level. The soil was very stony. However many interesting and exotic plants were grown in the 100plus years the house and gardens were occupied by the Lomax Family. The house was originally bought at auction by Frank's wife Lucy(Dodes) My mother knew her as Grannymax. My mother had the same relationship with her grandmother as I had with mine.

Grannymax - top left with Auntie Hilda
Lucy Dodes married Frank Lomax -Tom and Irene's father.

Personal recollections of Brookhouse.
We moved into Brookhouse when I was about 5. I remembered being able to sit in the removal van's cab on the drive from Whitelegge street to Brookhouse - seemed like a big adventure. Frank was there when we arrived - He wasn't really very tall but he possessed immense strength. When the removal men could not lift my mother's piano over the bannister - he just grabbed it and lifted it over on his own. Initially my bedroom was the backroom, possibly the the largest room in the house. A great big skylight was in the middle of the ceiling, under was a great big cast iron bath. I dont recall the bath going. The skylight was covered over by a sheet of corrugated plastic. I think I recall a very expensive carpet square in the middle of the room, Axminster or something similar. It was pink, but my mother had it dyed blue - it was purpleish. Where the carpet didn't fit was varnished! The house probably still smells of varnish to this day. The back window looked up the valley. Fantastic view. There were cows on that pasture in the late '50's before it became a country park. Must have spent hours just staring. Saw pretty much every British mammal over 15 years. The squirrels hadn't arrived though!

Not sure of the date. However I would suggest it was at the time of the house being split into three. The plans were not correct as I knew them. I think there was a before and after on these plans. The bottom is the where the road runs. The left hand side is 131, the middle 133 and the end 135. It doesnt show it but there was a cellar that ran the length of the house. There must have been a way upstairs from the inside because there were 3 sets of stairs leading to the ground floor.

Jim and Irene Cosgrove, Must be a pier somewhere.
Irene and Jim lived in 135 with Frank.

Wedding Photograph

My Grandmother lived in 131, my Aunt Irene Cosgrove and her husband Jim Cosgrove lived in 135. Her father Frank lived there too. Myself, my mother and father lived in the middle, 133. I did feel that I had the run of the house then. Probably spent more time in my Grandma's than my own house. Grandad Frank frightened me a great deal. I couldn't/daren't go in the cellar on my own. It stretched all the way under all 3 houses, very dark and there were only 2 lights. There were also strange stairs and hidey holes too. Jim was a very kind man. Spoke as I recall with just the faintest of an Irish brogue. Frequently, and it must have been the weekend - he used to give me a florin (2/-) or half a crown (2/6) to clen his Corgi motor bike parts - he was a chauffeur for the CWS in Manchester. Never saw the car, so he must have ridden in to Manchester everyday! I recall the day or at least the period that he died. I also know that in true Lomax fashion - things were done and life carried on. I have a feeling that my Aunt went straight back to work both after his death and after his funeral. The funeral wake was held in our part of the house. I presume Jim's family came. Lots of strangers and I remember awkwardness and strange dialects. But life continued.

Frank Lomax -  Irene and Tom's Father
My Great Grandfather. The cat was called Twinkie. She died in a road accident outside Brookhouse.
My aunt was devastated. He is standing in the garden that was across the road.

At the end of the wall on the left a lane disappears down to an old factory. It was run down and us locals played there. It was bought out by Cormar Carpets. The sent quite large wagons down the lane. There was a 20 ft drop into the stream, none fell down to the best of my knowledge. The knocked down our corner on several occasions. I believe my Aunt sold them 20 sq yards so they had a better turning circle.

The "other" cottages at Brookhouse.
These are just to the top left of Brookhouse on the map.
This image is from the Bury Image Bank. It is the thumbnail blown up.
Not sure if the person who uploaded the image really understood the
significance of the picture because there are several objects in this picture that are no longer there including the cottages!

This picture has been taken from the left hand corner of the bridge that crosses the stream. Right heads towards Greenmount. Facing you in the photograph is the bridge that crosses the stream. (The Army blew the bridge up about 1960!) in a flood. Brookhouse cellar was already flooded - there was all sorts of garbage floating around in there including chickens from the abattoir up Stormer hill. He got into terrible trouble for disposing dead chickens down the drain as I recall!

Until I saw the map I did not even know the existence of the cottages. It is almost impossible to tease out who lived where! I shall be diving in and trying to find out the identity of the people who lived there.I am not sure my mother recalls them. The other cottages were mentioned but these were not.

The picture of these cottages reveals 3 cottages in a line. They would stretch from the edge of the lane to Hollymount to the stream edge as it heads up the valley. The stonework on stream edge is still here. The map shows access or gardens to rear. Seems to make sense from what I remember.

Map off the Brookhouse area. Don't know the year. The streams are in blue
Holcombe road goes from south to north-east. Eventually to Greenmount, Holcombe Brook and beyond. The road thet heads off north-west goes to Hollymount Convent and Greenmount Golf Club. The top right building is Brookhouse Farm.
The very large building on the right is Brookhouse Mill, which is now Cormar Carpets.
This map will be updated.

This is looking down Stormer Hill. The faint buildings at the end of the road are
the cottages that my family remembers.
The wall on the righthand side had not been built at this time.

Apart from a copy of the actual deed, that I will publish I have some names from the internet that I have tried to join up as being resident at Brookhouse over the years. They will be sorted in time but for now a rough draft.

In 1780 Robert Tickle of Brookhouse Farm, built his new house, which he called Brookhouse on the western side of the new highway in the part of ground considered to be part of Quakersfield.


Robert and Sarah Tickle 1782
James Rothwell between 1830 and 1838
Probably Ann Rothwell upto  October  1935

The names below are from the Cousins-Family Website, I will be wading my way through the census - to see if there is any more info at the censuses. I feel that these names may not have lived at Brookhouse itself.

Thomas Smith born abt 1841 Residence 30 March 1851     Age 10 (approx)
                                                     Residence  7th April 1861      20 years Cotton Weaver

Betty Smith  born abt 1852  Residence 7th April 1861           Age 9 (approx)
                                                    Residence 2nd April 1871        Age 19 Stitcher at Bleach Works

Eliza Smith  born abt 1857  Residence 2 April 1861
                                                    Residence 2nd April 1871   Age 14 (approx) Cotton Weaver
 

This is the entire 1981 Census that was living at "Brookhouse"

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Joshua ROBERTS	Head	M	Male	42	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Bleacher And Finisher
Mary E. ROBERTS	Wife	M	Female	36	Stalham, Norfolk, England
Norman B. ROBERTS	Son		Male	13	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Herbert H. ROBERTS	Son		Male	10	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Harold K. ROBERTS	Son		Male	8	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Edith M. ROBERTS	Daur		Female	6	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Frederick J. ROBERTS	Son		Male	2	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Ellen MURPHY	Serv	U	Female	35	Wexford Ennisessthy, Ireland	General Servant
-----------------------
Miah GREENHALGH	Head	W	Female	63	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Annuitant
-----------------------
Alice SMITH	Head	W	Female	71	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Annuitant
Betty SMITH	Daur	U	Female	30	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Bleach Works Labourer
----------------------
Joseph NUTTALL	Head	M	Male	25	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Bleach Works Labourer
Mary Ann NUTTALL	Wife	M	Female	22	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Robert NUTTALL	Son		Male	3	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Charles NUTTALL	Son		Male	5 m	Tottington, Lancashire, England
-----------------------
Samuel BOOTH	Head	M	Male	62	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Print Works Labourer
Margarit BOOTH	Wife	M	Female	60	Bury, Lancashire, England
William RAMSBOTTAM	Lodger	U	Male	60	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Print Works Labourer
James JARRETT	Lodger	U	Male	32	Bolton, Lancashire, England	Bleach Works Finisher
----------------------
James ENTWISTLE	Head	M	Male	31	Bank Lane, Lancashire, England	Cotton Weaver
Mary ENTWISTLE	Wife	M	Female	34	Bank Lane, Lancashire, England
Elizabeth A. ENTWISTLE	Daur		Female	12	Bank Lane, Lancashire, England	Scholar
John ENTWISTLE	Son		Male	9	Bank Lane, Lancashire, England
Richard ENTWISTLE	Son		Male	1	Bank Lane, Lancashire, England
-------------------------
Thomas LEACH	Head	M	Male	37	Bury, Lancashire, England	Cotton Spinner
Betsy LEACH	Wife	M	Female	35	Bury, Lancashire, England
Anne Maria LEACH	Daur		Female	9	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
John Robt. LEACH	Son		Male	7	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Harriet E. LEACH	Daur		Female	2 m	Tottington, Lancashire, England
------------------------
Lawrence NUTTALL	Head	M	Male	40	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Farm Labourer
Jane NUTTALL	Wife	M	Female	41	Tottington, Lancashire, England
James NUTTALL	Son	U	Male	10	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Mary NUTTALL	Daur		Female	9	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Maria NUTTALL	Daur		Female	6	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Alice NUTTALL	Daur		Female	2	Tottington, Lancashire, England
------------------------
William H. LUND	Head	M	Male	41	Ewood Bridge, Lancashire, England	Print Works Mechanic
Ellen LUND	Wife	M	Female	41	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England
Thos. LUND	Son		Male	14	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England	Printworks Labourer
Chas.Ed. LUND	Son		Male	11	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England	Printworks Labourer
Edward LUND	Son		Male	9	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Elizabeth LUND	Daur		Female	5	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Mary LUND	Daur		Female	7	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
William LUND	Son		Male	3	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Rachel SCHOLES	Serv	U	Female	17	Radcliffe, Lancashire, England	Cotton Weaver
------------------------
Samuel ISHERWOOD	Head	M	Male	32	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Cotton Overlooker
Martha ISHERWOOD	Wife	M	Female	31	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Cotton Weaver
-------------------------
Jesse HUTCHINSON	Head	W	Male	39	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Print Finisher
Emily HUTCHINSON	Daur		Female	10	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Ernest HUTCHINSON	Son		Male	6	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Martha BUTTERWORTH	Serv	U	Female	31	Tottington, Lancashire, England	General Serv
------------------------
William BROWN	Head	M	Male	31	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England	Commercial Clerk
Ellen BROWN	Wife	M	Female	29	Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England
Sarah Jane BROWN	Daur		Female	4	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Scholar
Kitty BROWN	Daur		Female	2	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Alice BROWN	Daur		Female	4 m	Tottington, Lancashire, England
-------------------------
John MORGAN	Head	M	Male	60	Bolton, Lancashire, England	Out Labourer
Hannah MORGAN	Wife	M	Female	63	Bolton, Lancashire, England
Hannah Jane MORGAN	Daur	U	Female	24	Bolton, Lancashire, England	Bleach Works Finisher
Elijah MORGAN	Daur	U	Male	20	Bolton, Lancashire, England	Print Dryer
------------------------
Alice HEAP	Head	W	Female	64	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Annuitant
Ann HEAP	Daur	U	Female	32	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Annuitant
Elizabeth HEAP	Daur	U	Female	24	Tottington, Lancashire, England	Annuitant
Margaret A. HEAP	Grd Daur		Female	3	Tottington, Lancashire, England
-----------------------
James GRIME	Head	M	Male	28	Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, England	Manager Print Works
Jane Ann GRIME	Wife	M	Female	27	Church, Lancashire, England
John Fister GRIME	Son		Male	2	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Alice FISTER	Visitor	W	Female	64	Oakenshaw, Lancashire, England	No Occupation
E.A. KERR	Visitor	U	Female	26	Glasgow, Scotland	Confectioner
William GRIME	Son		Male	1	Tottington, Lancashire, England
-----------------------
Job HOLLAND	Head	M	Male	26	Radcliffe, Lancashire, England	Cloth And Yarn Agent
Sarah E. HOLLAND	Wife	M	Female	24	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Annie HOLLAND	Daur		Female	1	Tottington, Lancashire, England
Mary HUTTON	Serv		Female	14	Skelmersdale	General Servant

(The Roberts  have taken over the house from the Rothwell family who were the surviving partners of the Tickle family)

This is 16 households. Brookhouse proper will have consisted of 3 households. Probably the Grimes, Holland and Heaps.The other 13 will have been split between the Farm - although there does not appear to be a farmer in the list and the remainder of the cottages. The farm was probably split into cottages anyway. Research to continue!!