Mansion of iron boss becomes youth hostel
Last updated at 09:11, Monday, 28 March 2011
LOVERS of the great outdoors will admire the views from the youth hostel at Holly How, Coniston, without realising its origins as the home of one of the mining pioneers whose success led to the creation of Millom.
It was bought for £70 as a cottage in 1845 by William Barratt, a mining engineer who came to Coniston around 1840 to work for his uncle John at the Coniston copper mines.
Between 1845 and 1881 the cottage became a grand country house.
William Barratt was born in 1816 or 1817 and was married to Sarah Sanders at Torver church on July 20 in 1843. They had six children.
He would have travelled by train from Coniston station, which opened in 1859, to work as general manager at Hodbarrow iron ore mines in Millom.
The huge reserves of ore they discovered led to the birth of Millom as a new town of 10,000 people by the time of the 1901 census when building was
underway on the mile-and-a-quarter outer barrier to allow mining to continue under what had been the sea.
Barratt died at the age of 64 on May 8 in 1881 and is buried at St Luke’s churchyard, Torver.
Later uses of Holly How included accommodation for Belgian refugees during the First World War.
It was bought by the Youth Hostel Association in 1949.
One of our other pictures shows Coniston Institute in Yewdale Road in Edwardian days.
The Mechanic’s Institute and Literary Society was founded in 1852 and used to meet in schoolrooms near the churchyard.
A purpose-built institute at the present site was opened in 1878 with a reading room, assembly room and library but has seen many changes since then.
First published at 08:59, Monday, 28 March 2011
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
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