You can’t be a Barrovian, born, bred or both, without Abbey
Road holding a place in your heart. Driving, walking, bussing, cycling, there’s
not much option but to include it in your journey. I walk
parts of it nearly every day, especially the bit my son christened Conker Alley. If
you’ve walked between St. Paul’s and Monk's Croft at this time of year, you’ll
understand why.
Monk's Croft.... there's a name to conjure with. From the sandstone drinking trough, to where the iconic White House Hotel used to stand, the houses- those still in evidence and those long gone- tell a story. And quite a compelling one.
These structures aren't linked by time, but by sandstone. If you live here, you know. But the bigger houses that line this route into the town have their own story to tell. Our family lived, for a short while, in the house that William
Gradwell Jnr. built for himself. His father, William Gradwell Snr. was perhaps
the most important man in terms of the building of our town. He was a Victorian
master builder, and many of the iconic buildings in our town came together
under the direction of his firm. From lowly origins as an apprenticed
carpenter, he grew his construction business in Barrow, and was responsible for
the very early use of brick instead of stone, with the bricks being made at his own kilns in Roose or Greengate or North Scale. I listened in to a
Greenlane Architects lecture recently, and their excavation at
Cornmill Crossing found bricks bearing Gradwell’s name littered the site; he built the original steam powered corn mill. Walking past Abbey
House and the gentle green slopes in front of Furness General Hospital, it is
possible to imagine why the elevated Victorian classes wanted to live along
here, rather than further towards the newly formed municipal town centre where
they had their businesses. But not William Gradwell. When he moved to the area
and opened his sawmill, he bought a property in Roose and didn’t live anywhere
else. For a man who had a hand in building much of the Victorian portion of our
town, he was never really accepted by the hoi-polloi. Some even called
him rough, though he owned a lot of property and supported many local
initiatives. He was appointed to position of mayor for the last year of his
life, but even this appointment was given to him second-hand, after he was
initially passed-over for someone else. Sir James Ramsden is often cited as the
man with all the influence in the story of Barrow, isn’t he? I’m much more for
Gradwell, myself!
The architecture is stunning. In the years between 1870 and 1890, when Barrow had
risen from its earlier network of small villages and hamlets to something much
nearer to the actual town we know and love, a whole raft of detached villa type
houses were built along Abbey Road, from Monk’s Croft and Prior’s Lea near the
entrance to what is now FGH, right down to Arlington Villa, just opposite the
new Abbey Road Co-op. These houses are gone now, as are Rock Lea,
Risedale Villa, Armadale and a host of others, but those that remain give an
idea of the money and grandiose ideals of the merchants and managers who were
paying for them. They’re not private houses now- the townsfolk have long since
left those ideals behind. Most are recommissioned. There’s a couple of
nurseries, a guest house, a nursing home, private contractor accommodation.
That someone from out town actually used Arndene as a private house is hard to
fathom. It does show how the Industrial Revolution created classes of
people though, doesn’t it? William Gradwell and his story fascinates me. And
it’s the focus of my next novel.
As Abbey Road moves on past the gentrified Victorian
outskirts, the solidly built Victorian terraces come into view. Built for the
middle-classes, most had cellars to house kitchen and scullery, and often had
attic accommodation for the servants. Again, these terraces we now class as
ordinary homes- one was a doctor’s practice, one is a guest house. But the
strata of the Victorian class system is in evidence, once again.
While I was researching local buildings, I discovered that
there are two houses named Seaview Villas in Barrow. When I wrote Seaview
House, I chose that name because there wasn’t a real place in the town
called that. Or, so I thought. My Seaview House is on Walney, though, and these
villas are on Ilkley Road.
I have to finish the blog with the house I love the most in our town: poor old broken down Ellerslie- also known as Prospect House. It was built for Colonel Frederick Clifton Briggs, who was commander of the Barrow Garrison at the end of the 1800s. I love the place so much, I've written a novel about it. If I had the money, I'd buy the place like a shot. Apparently, its renovation has been halted because of serious underpinning problems. Sometimes, I just stand at the fence with my face pressed into the metal bars, and dream! There's a whole other section of Abbey Road to look at- telling so much more of Barrow's story. That'll feature in part two. In the meantime, pull on your trainers and take that three-and-a-half-mile walk. It's fabulous.
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