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I am looking for information on any Leaver’s that lived or worked at Extwistle Hall in the 19th Century. There were two Leaver families working there in the 1841 census and three in the 1851 census and I believe they were related.

As written in Noel H. Leaver 1889 – 1951, by James S. Taylor ARCA, 1983
(famous painter)
http://www.noelharryleaver.com/history.htm

“In 1855 Noel’s grandfather, John Leaver, married Susanne Gray whose father, and grandfather before him, farmed 120 acres on the Towneley Estate at Worsthorne, a village near Burnley. Before his marriage, John, like his father Abraham, had been a quarry man on the nearby Extwistle Hall Estate. It is interesting to note that, of the seven families on the estate in 1851, three were named Leaver, which no doubt indicates that the Leaver’s had resided in the locality for several generations previously. After the death of Susanne’s father, our Leaver’s continued to work the farm, then known as Bottom of the Town, and now named Butcher’s farm.

Noel’s father, Peter, was born on the farm in 1862. Four children preceded him and six more were to follow. There was adequate wealth to provide for the children and Peter was given an academic education from which he graduated at the Saltley Teacher Training Centre when he was twenty two. Peter Leaver’s first appointment was as assistant master in 1885, followed a year later by the headship, at the Church school Austwick, a North Yorkshire village near Settle. It was at the school House here that Noel Harry Leaver, their forth child, was born 23rd March, 1889. In May of the same year the family were back near Burnley when Peter became headmaster of the Congregational School in Brierfield. Noel was christened at Worsthorne Parish Church, which has a long connection with the Leaver family…………”

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history of Extwistle Hall

EXTWISTLE HALL

In 1190, Richard Malbisse, a Norman baron, was in possession of Extwistle, but later it became the property of the Kirkstall and Newbo abbeys. It was subsequently leased to John Parker of Monk Hall, and Richard Towneley. On the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537 it was acquired by William Ramsden, and then resold to Robert Parker. Standing high on Extwistle Moor roughly halfway between Haggate and Worsthorne, Extwistle Hall was built in the 16th century in the Tudor style, and another wing was added later. The Parker family gained prominence in local affairs, and two of its members became sheriffs of the county. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the dubious sport of bullbaiting was at its height and a bullring was situated in the vicinity of the hall. The bullstone, a bulky piece of millstone grit is now built into a nearby wall.

There is little doubt that Edmund Spenser made the journey from nearby Hurstwood to witness the sport, and a verse from "The Faerie Queen" lends credence to this fact.

"Like a wylde bull that, being at a bay,

Is bayted of a mastiffe and a hound,

Any a curre-dog, that doe him sharpe assay

On every side, and beat about him round".

The Parker family lived at the hall for about 200 years, and it was a curious but tragic accident that severed their association with Extwistle. On Thursday, March 17th, 1718, Captain Robert Parker went out shooting on a day that turned out to be wet and stormy. Consequently at the end of the day's sport he returned to the house thoroughly drenched with rain. He removed his greatcoat and laid it in front of the fire to dry. Unfortunately, he had omitted to remove his powder flask that still contained a large quantity of gunpowder and the result was that an explosion took place. Captain Parker, along with two of his daughters ,Mary Townley and Betty Atkinson, and a child, were seriously injured, and there was considerable damage to the dining room in which the accident happened, and two other rooms were set on fire. Unfortunately, Captain Parker succumbed to his injuries and died a month later. After this tragedy the family moved to another residence, Cuerden Hall, and the old house at Extwistle appears to have been abandoned to dilapidation, although part of it was occupied as a farmhouse. A more unlikely tale records that the same Captain Parker, when returning from a Jacobite meeting late one evening, saw a goblin funeral procession pass through the gate at the top of Netherwood Fields.

The ghostly cavalcade passed of on in deep silence, a train of little men bearing the coffin, on top of which, as it passed, he saw his own name inscribed. In 1902, in a lecture to the Burnley Literary and Scientific Club, Mr. Tattersall Wilkinson, the sage of Roggerham, said: "In bygone days it was a generally accepted superstition that the devil could be raised by reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards, and woe betide the raisers who did not manage to give him a task he could not do. It is said that some country people raised his satanic majesty at Lee Green, near Extwistle. In this instance he accomplished every task put before him. Terror and dismay filled the minds of the unlucky bumpkins as the time was fast drawing nigh when he would claim his recompense. At this awful moment they bethought themselves to fetch a priest from Towneley, who arrived just in the nick of time when the devil vanished in a flash of lightning at the sight of his mortal enemy, who duly laid the foe of man with bell and book at the foot of Lee Green Scar, where he rests till this day. Sadly this once fine hall is now in decay, if nothing is done, and done quickly it will be lost forever.

Leslie Chapple 'Romantic Old Houses and Their Tales'
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More info.

EXTWISTLE HALL, now a farm-house, stands on a high ridge of land between the valleys of the Don and Swinden Water in a bleak and commanding situation, and is a lofty three-story building with end gables and mullioned windows, said to have been erected by John Parker in the latter half of the 16th century. The principal front faces north, and the fall of the ground southwards allowing of a basement makes the house one of four stories on that side, where the chief feature is the massive chimney of the hall, which projects 5 ft. and has a width of 15 ft. The house, which is built of local gritstone with stoneslated roofs, consists of a rectangular block 34 ft. by 27 ft. 6 in. externally, and a north-west wing 19 ft. by 14 ft. 6 in., with a lower two-story building with plain gabled roofs on the east end. A former wing on the west side, however, fell down some time during the first half of the 19th century, destroying what is said to have been one of the best apartments and others known as the ladies' rooms. (fn. 66) In front of the house is a small flagged courtyard 43 ft. long by 33 ft. in width, partly inclosed on the west side by the north-west wing, and on the east by the lower buildings. The north side has a high fence wall with moulded coping and balled gate-piers fronting the road. The great hall, which is about 24 ft. by 21 ft., occupies the eastern end of the first floor of the main block and is approached from the forecourt by a wide flight of stone steps forming a very picturesque feature. The entrance in the north-west corner through a four-centred doorway with label and square panel over is now built up, but the north wall still retains unimpaired its lofty ten-light mullioned window with double transoms and hood mould. The floor of the hall is 7 ft. above the general level of the courtyard, to which there is a descent of five steps from the main gateway. The south wall of the hall is occupied almost entirely by the fireplace, the Tudor arched opening of which, however, is now built up, and the room is in a more or less dilapidated state. Portions of an ornamental plaster ceiling and of a carved oak beam are still to be seen, and above the fireplace is a fragment of ornamental plaster work with the words 'nescio cujus' remaining. The staircase, which is of stone, is in the west side of the house, and above the hall is a large room open to the roof and lit by two low mullioned windows of five lights each below the eaves on the north side. The north-west wing, which may be a 17th-century addition, is less severe in appearance than the main block, but is of equal height and of four stories, two of its floors ranging with the height of the great hall. The walls are finished with a plain parapet and balled gables which together with its many mullioned and transomed windows afford some relief to the otherwise rather bare west gable end of the main block. At the back is a small three-light window with round-headed lights under a square head, the only one of this type in the building.
By an explosion of gunpowder in the house in March 1717 much damage was done, and shortly afterwards the family finally quitted the hall, which has since been occupied intermittently by tenant farmers, who chiefly use, however, the basement or ground floor rooms and those in the lower east wing. The appearance of the building in its lonely and commanding position and its present state of semi desolation and abandonment is very striking.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report ... =53154#n79

Extwistle Hall – 1841 Census – as you can see there are seven families living in the house, three of which are Leaver’s. Because the census results can be difficult to read I have had to guess the name on occasion.
I have two different census references so I will list them both.
HO 107 / 506 / 15 and HO 107 / 2253 140

1841 Census
Briercliffe with Extwistle - Extwistle Hall
Betty Holt? 55yrs, Shop Keeper, born Lancashire
Alice Holt?, 25yrs, Weaver, born Lancashire
Thomas Holt?, 15yrs, born Lancashire
Robert Holt?, 13yrs, born Lancashire
Holt Holt?, 4yrs, born Lancashire
John Holt?, 1yrs, born Lancashire

Peter Whitehead, 25yrs, Stone Carter, born Lancashire
Nancy Whitehead, 25yrs, born Lancashire
Hannah Whitehead, 5yrs, born Lancashire
John Whitehead, 3yrs, born Lancashire
Sariah Whitehead, 1yrs, born Lancashire

Richard Preston, 75yrs, Ag Lab, born Lancashire
Joshua Preston, 70yrs, Weaver, born Lancashire
Thomas Preston, 65yrs, Weaver, born Lancashire

1841 Census - HO 107 / 2253 140
Briercliffe and Extwistle - Extwistle Hall
James Leaver, 35yrs, Game Keeper, born Lancashire
Elizabeth Leaver, 40yrs, born Lancashire
Nancy Leaver, 15yrs, born Lancashire
Thomas Leaver, 13yrs, born Lancashire
James Leaver, 12yrs, born Lancashire
Ann Leaver, 8yrs, born Lancashire
John Leaver, 7yrs, born Lancashire
Robert Leaver, 3 months, born Lancashire

1841 Census - HO 107 / 2253 140 - 141
Briercliffe and Extwistle - Extwistle Hall
John Leaver, 45yrs, Farmer, born Lancashire
Anne Leaver, 45yrs, Farmer, born Lancashire
Thomas? Leaver, 24yrs, Farmer, born Lancashire
Susy Leaver, 19yrs, Weaver, born Lancashire
Peggy Leaver, 15yrs, born Lancashire
James Leaver, 14yrs, born Lancashire
Elizabeth Leaver, 13yrs, born Lancashire
John Leaver, 11yrs, born Lancashire
Ellen Leaver, 9yrs, born Lancashire
Ann Leaver, 6yrs, born Lancashire
Robert Leaver, 2yrs, born Lancashire
Heather ? Leaver, 1yrs, born Lancashire

John Clough, 35yrs, Weaver, born Lancashire
Alice Clough, 35yrs, born Lancashire
William Clough, 11yrs, born Lancashire
Nancy Clough, 12yrs, born Lancashire
Josh Clough, 1yrs, born Lancashire

Abraham Leaver, 42yrs, Weaver, born Lancashire
Betty Leaver, 33yrs, born Lancashire
Nancy Leaver, 12yrs, born Lancashire
James Leaver, 11yrs, born Lancashire
Peter Leaver, 9yrs, born Lancashire
John Leaver, 7yrs, born Lancashire
Hannah Leaver, 5yrs, born Lancashire
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.........the rest of the property to be added........

1851 Census – HO 107 / 2251
Extwistle Hall, Briercliffe
Abraham Leaver, Head, Mar, 50yrs, Quarry Lab, b. Extwistle
Elizabeth Leaver, Wife, Mar, 44yrs?, b. Extwistle
Nancy Leaver, Daughter, Unm, 22yrs, Power Weaver Cotton, b. Extwistle
James Leaver, Son, Unm, 21yrs, Quarry Lab, b. Extwistle
Peter Leaver, Son, Unm, 19yrs, Quarry Lab, b. Extwistle
John Leaver, Son, Unm, 17yrs, Quarry Lab, b. Extwistle
Hannah Leaver, Daughter, 15yrs, Power Weaver Cotton, b. Extwistle
Hannah Whitham, Relation, Widow? 23yrs, ??, b. Extwistle

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1861 Census – Extwistle Hall
RG 9 / 3074

James Edmondson, Head, Mar, 49yrs, Farmer 78 acres? Labourers, b. Briercliffe
Rachel Edmondson, Wife, Mar, 32yrs, Farmers Wife, b. Yorkshire, W?sey?
Ann Edmondson, Daughter, Un, 22yrs, Farmers Daughter, b Lancashire, Reedley Hollows
Joseph Edmondson, Son, Un, 20yrs, Farmers Son, b Lancashire, Reedley Hollows
John Edmondson, Son, 6yrs, Scholar, b. Extwistle
William Edmondson, Son, 3yrs, Scholar, b. Extwistle
Henry Edmondson, Son, 1yrs, b. Extwistle
Ellen Edmondson, Daughter, 6months, b. Extwistle
John Edmondson, Nephew, 15yrs, Ag Lab. b. Extwistle

Abraham Leaver, Head, Mar, 61yrs, Labourer at a stone Quarry, b. Extwistle
Betty Leaver, Wife, Mar, 53yrs, b. Worsthorne
James Leaver, Son, Widow, 31yrs, Labourer at a stone Quarry, b. Extwistle

Next house – Extwistle Mill

James Pickles, Head, Mar, 29?yrs, Tackler of Power Looms, b. Worsthorne?
Hannah Pickles, Wife, Mar, 25yrs, Cotton Weaver, b. Extwistle
Elizabeth Pickles, Daughter, 11 months? B. Extwistle

Next house – Extwistle Fold

James Leaver, Head, Mar, 37yrs, Gamekeeper, b. Marsden
Elizabeth Leaver, Wife, Mar, 38yrs, b. Extwistle
John Leaver, Son, 11yrs, Scholar, b. Extwistle

Next house – Netherwood

Thomas Leaver, Head, Mar, 43yrs, Ag Lab, b. Worsthorn
Ellen Leaver, Wife, Mar, 47yrs, b. Reedley Hollows
Mary Leaver, Daughter, 10yrs, Scholar, b. Extwistle
Thomas Leaver, Son, 4yrs, Scholar, b. Worsthorne
John Leaver, Son, 1yrs b. Extwistle


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1871 Census – Extwistle Hall
RG 10 / 4152
Thomas Edmondson, Head, Mar, 57yrs, Farmer 97 acres 1 servant 93 Boys, b. Briercliffe
Rachel Edmondson, Wife, Mar, 41yrs, b. Trawden
John Edmondson, Son, Unmar, 17yrs Lab, b. Extwistle
William Edmondson, Son, 13yrs, Lab b. Extwistle
Henry Edmondson, Son, 11yrs, Lab b. Extwistle

Houghton Cottage (twice) and Extwistle Fold Cottage are on the same census page. All of these properties are occupied by Edmondson’s, and are probably the sons of the above Thomas as they age from 29yrs – 36yrs

Is it that there are 3 families or could there be more than one property covered under the address of 'Extwistle Hall'?
I know this happens with Pasture in Barrowford.

_________________
Mel

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Mel, I have often wondered about this. So often there seem to be a number of families with the same address at the same time. I wonder how many habitable buildings there were that came under the same address for all these local halls and farms
Sue

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If you keep searching you'll find it

I'll have a look in 'A Lancashire Township' to see if it gives any detail.
That book is a mine of info!

_________________
Mel

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I think I read there were 9 families living in the hall at one time.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

From Halls and Manor houses of NE Lancs.
Tenant farmers began to rent the hall and it was subdivided into several residences. By 1841 there were nine dwellings with over 50 people living in them and working hand looms and spinning wheels amongst their multitude of trades.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

There is a picture of Extwistle Hall on the main site http://www.briercliffesociety.co.uk/Photo%20Archive/Extwistle.htm
There is also a sketch http://www.briercliffesociety.co.uk/Photo%20Archive/Extwistle/Sketch.htm

_________________
Mel

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http://archive.burnleycitizen.co.uk/200 ... 42027.html
Hall's not well on the risk list
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Saturday 19th Jul 2003.
SEVERAL historic buildings in Burnley are at risk of being lost forever, according to a new government report.
And a Burnley councillor has warned a lot needs to be done, or parts of East Lancashire's heritage will crumble away.
Five historic halls have been included on a list of sites in the North West and English Heritage, a government conservation body, said their future is in danger.
Roger Frost, a Burnley councillor and local historian, said: "The list of buildings under threat seems to be getting longer every year.
"Putting them on to the list brings them to the attention of people who could do them up and in some cases English Heritage gives financial support."
The Buildings at Risk Register was created to define the scale of the national problem and to prioritise action needed to secure their future.
Speaking outside Extwistle Hall in Rogerham, the 16th Century home of the Parker family and one of those on the list, Coun Frost said the buildings included in the list are in severe danger. He warned: "Some, particularly Extwistle Hall are in a very poor condition and a lot needs to be done to save them.
"Burnley Borough Council has a role and that is to help people who do restore buildings and to put them in touch with English Heritage."
Coun Frost said the council had had several offers to restore Extwistle Hall, but despite planning permission being granted on at least one occasion, none of the projects had got off the ground.
The Holme, in Cliviger, is Burnley's most recent addition to the list. It was ravaged by fire earlier this year and is currently standing empty. Its future is still to be decided after an arson investigation found there was no evidence of a crime.
The owners of the Holme, which dates back to the 17th Century, are still in consultation with insurers about repair costs.
Barcroft Hall, grade two listed hall in Cliviger, Shuttleworth Hall in Hapton and Hurstwood Hall in Worsthorne also make the list.
Malcolm Cooper, English Heritage's regional director, said: "There are 162 buildings at risk on the register in the North West. Eleven have been successfully removed, but sadly 11 more have taken their place.
"Despite the fact English Heritage has battled to secure the future of more than one in four of the buildings first placed on the register in 1999 and given more than £27million nationally since that time, there remains a core of important historic assets that we simply have no resources to save."

http://www.barrowford.org/page22.html

Extwistle Hall - Towneley-Parker - Cuerden - Extwistle Estates.
John Clayton info again

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Mel

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