Plaster magnate who built his house on straw
Last updated 05:27, Friday, 20 June 2008
Having made his fortune through mining gypsum and manufacturing plaster of Paris, John Thomlinson decided to build a new family mansion.
But Mrs Dorothy Relph later recalled “the legend that the house would never prosper because it was built on standing corn”.
Born in Carlisle and baptised at St Mary’s in November 1834, John Thomlinson, son of Robert and Margaret, had lived at Stanwix and Abbey Street while he managed the processing of gypsum at Denton Mill for his uncle’s firm, Joseph Robinson and Co.
John married the daughter of the Rev James Tasker, the vicar of Holy Trinity in Caldewgate.
Changes came when it was decided to move the mill to the quarry at Knot Hill near Armathwaite to be closer to the planned Settle and Carlisle railway.
First John Thomlinson took the lease of Armathwaite Castle in 1870, but he wanted to be nearer the mill and chose a site on adjacent land in January 1878. His new residence was first known as Knot House.
The London firm of Verity and Hunt provided the plans. The leading partner, GW Hunt, designed a house on which no expense was to be spared.
The Carlisle Scientific and Field Naturalists Club who visited the site in 1884, reported: “Mr Thomlinson, with the advice of the late Miss Pooley of Langwathby, christened his residence by the apposite name of ‘Englethwaite’, the house being built in Inglewood Forest.”
When completed in 1879 the house, set in 33 acres, was known as Englethwaite Hall.
Confusion over the date of building was caused by the Building News who described the house in February 1882 as “recently erected, built with stone quarried on the estate and stands in a fine position with beautiful views all round”.
There were timber-framed gables and a veranda on three sides.
Internally, stated the report, “were fittings of pitch-pine and walnut executed by G Black of Carlisle and the stained glass by Messrs Gibbs and Howard.”
The Journal began to report on difficulties at Joseph Robinson and Co. “In 1891 when at the lowest ebb, Mr Thomlinson worked for nothing and his circumstances were such that if they did not advance £200 they would have to shut up.”
Then in July 1893 the Journal advertised for sale at Englethwaite “all of the furnishings and collection of John and Emma Mary Thomlinson, they having moved to London”.
A charge of embezzlement was made against John Thomlinson at the Town Hall, Carlisle, in 1894, he as a director having taken £352 from the firm of Joseph Robinson and Co in 1893.
When summoned to appear, a doctor’s certificate declared that he was suffering from “extreme nervous depression and was not fit to travel.”
The North Cumberland Reformer reported in June that the case was “not to be further proceeded with” and the charge was dropped.
Meanwhile, Englethwaite was put up for sale by Joseph Whiteley of Huddersfield, the first mortgagee.
With only one offer of £3,000 and no reserve it was sold at that price to the solicitor of the vendor, Mr Laycock.
The property was then offered for let on a yearly basis eventually being sold again 1898 to Miss Margaret Lucy Nairn of Wetheral for an undisclosed sum, said by the Journal, to be less than the construction costs of £15,000.
She then transferred her high-class boarding school for girls from Lime House, making extensions to the designs of JH Martindale in 1899.
In 1909 Miss Nairn decided to retire and sold all the school fixtures and fittings before selling the house in 1910 to R Ayrton England of Gilstead Hall, Bingley.
Within two years Mr England died and the property was offered for auction by his trustees but with no bidders it was sold by private treaty to Messrs FL Mercer and Co, who sold it on in 1916 to W Tyler of Leicester.
The sitting tenant was FSA Maude who had brought with him in 1914 his chauffeur, Arthur Henry Simmonds.
At a tribunal in June 1916, Mr Maude appealed against military service for his chauffeur.
“It was stated that Englethwaite Hall had been taken over as an Auxiliary Red Cross Hospital and was now being equipped for use.”
Mr Maude successfully argued that Mr Simmonds would be necessary for the running of the hospital while he himself would become its commandant. The hospital opened on July 15 1916, fully equipped and with 50 beds.
In December Mr Maude relinquished command to Miss Ida C Kentish of Wigton Hall and she remained until closure on April 30 1919 having treated 593 patients with only five deaths.
Arthur Simmonds stayed on as caretaker and continued for the new owners.
Again the mansion was for sale in June 1919 and was bought by Cumberland County Council for use as Englethwaite Tuberculosis Colony from 1920.
By 1921, 40 colonists were in residence, receiving industrial training in open-air workshops.
But all cases were transferred to Blencathra in 1925 and in 1926 the building was once again for sale. With no takers it remained in a derelict condition until in 1933 it became a County Council children’s home.
Being declared “too big for our needs” by the council, it was vacated in 1963.
Englethwaite proved difficult to sell and The Cumberland News in July 1967 reported that the county council had two prospective purchases.
All that was needed to secure a sale was planning permission for conversion to hotel or country club with caravan park.
When it was bought by the Caravan Club as a site for 100 caravans in 1969, it was stated: “A condition of the sale was that the hall, then unsafe, was pulled down.”
Not a trace remains today of the once-grand mansion.
