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Life in service at a historic Burnley home
I AM tempted, with the publication of today's postcard view, to revert to a strategy I have often used before in this series – that of asking you, the reader, where you think the photo was taken. We are in Burnley, but where?
There are plenty of clues and many of you should, by now, be able to apply your skills as a historical detective to work out where we are.
The house itself is pretty distinctive. Notice it is constructed out of brick not, so far as Burnley is concerned, out of the more common stone. There are stone setts and tram lines in the road in front of the house and – very significant this – the road, obviously an important one, is level.
Just think about it. You are making your way out of Burnley centre. Whether you are going to Accrington, Padiham, Manchester, Todmorden, Colne or Briercliffe you will have to climb a hill, yet in the vicinity of Ashleigh, the road is quite clearly flat.
There is, though, one road which, although it has its hilly stretches, also has level sections.
I refer to Colne Road which also provided a route for the trams. As you approach Reedley there are a number of fine houses on either side of Colne Road, but the majority of the older and better properties have odd numbers and are situated beyond Peart Street. It is there you will find Ashleigh, the second house after the Peart Street junction.
We are, in fact, more fortunate than you might think to be able to discuss this postcard. The vast majority of postcards of this type – always relatively few in number – have been destroyed largely because they are of little or no interest to most people. It is likely this card was made for the family which regarded Ashleigh as its home. The card itself might never have been on general sale.
There is no maker's name on the card and it looks to me as if it has been commissioned from one of a number of local photographers who had easy access to the material out of which postcard were made.
The card has, however, been posted. It bears a one halfpenny stamp of the reign of Edward VII and was posted at 7-45 p.m. on January 28th, 1906. The sender did not sign her name, but it was addressed to a Miss Gladys Young, Woollett Hall, North Cray, Foots Cray, Kent.
It is likely you may not find the address interesting, but you might change your mind when you read what the sender has to say. (I have added punctuation). "Dear Gladys, thank you so much for the papers. I quite enjoy reading them. This is w(h)ere I live, but I am sorry to say the nursery window has come out badly. The sun must have ……. Hope you are quite well. Your time is short now."
It is clear the writer is in service at Ashleigh, possibly as a nurse. It could be that the recipient of the card is also in service, but the last phrases used in the message might lead us to believe Woollet Hall might have been used for purposes other than normal residential use. It is quite usual for the writer of a communication to hope the person with whom she is communicating is well, but the subsequent phrase could add a different perspective.
We tend to forget, living as we do at such a distance in time from the Edwardian era, when this card was posted, that numerous young girls (and some boys) were sent into service, sometimes many miles from where they lived. It was not always to the houses of the gentry they made their way. There were plenty of successful commercial families who also felt they needed servants.
In Burnley, the Dugdales had three sizeable houses in or very near the town, each a small version of the kind of property one would normally find at the centre of a great estate. We mentioned one of them a few weeks ago when we discussed the Rosehill area; others were at Ivy Bank and Park Hill.
Rosehill House is one of the best examples of this kind of property, but, unfortunately, only the house survives.
At one time the house had large gardens (now mostly built over), a high wall around part of the grounds, a gatehouse and impressive gates which were situated in Manchester Road.
Ashleigh might not have been as big, but as you can see it has a sizeable garden, a small but impressive gateway and railings around the property. It was just the kind of property that would find space for servants and, if you look carefully at the eastern gable (far left in the picture) you will be able to see where some of the servants would have slept.
For the house I have no date, but it is typical of the properties built in the late 1880s or 1890s. I know it was not standing in 1883, but eight years after the photo upon which the card is based was taken it was the home of Mr John Veevers, the possessor of a very local name.
I suspect that, at the time of the entry in the Commercial Directory for 1914, Mr Veevers was retired as no reference is made to his employment. However, there are a number of firms with which he could have been connected. They include Veevers & Hensman, the printers, and the cotton waste spinners, J.S. Veevers of Industry Mill, Stanley Street, Burnley.
Little more can be said about Ashleigh without consulting the Census Returns for 1901 and 1911 and, remember, we have not got the name of the writer of this postcard. On the other hand it is quite amazing what can be gleaned from an otherwise unprepossessing Edwardian postcard.
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Weather for Burnley
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
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