Gorse Hall

Tradition has, it was named for the abundance of common gorse (Ulex europaeus) which formerly grew in the area.{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Samuel |title=Bygone Stalybridge, Traditional, Historical, Biographical |date=1907 |publisher=Samuel Hill |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=900GAQAAIAAJ&dq=Gorse&pg=PA31 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Samuel |editor1-last=Caffrey |editor1-first=Helen Claire |title=Samuel Hill, 1864-1909: Dialect Poet, Prose Writer and Historian of Stalybridge |date=1980 |publisher=Tameside Libraries & Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ItdBMwEACAAJ |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Samuel |title="Foirewood," Or Splinters An' Shavin's Fro' a Carpenter's Bench: A Collection of Rhymes, Chiefly in the Dialect of South-east Lancashire |date=1902 |publisher="Herald" Printing and Publishing Company, Limited |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvxmTysEej8C |language=en}}

The history of the place is not well known. Friends of Gorse Hall is trying to research the historical importance of the site.

The first house, Old Gorse Hall, can be traced back to the 17th century and it probably dates from even earlier. Its ruins can still be seen. The Hall was once part of the manor of Dockenfeld held by Lieutenant–Colonel Robert Duckenfield, a Parliamentarian soldier in the English Civil War.

Upon the death of Lady Dukinfield Daniel in 1762, Gorse Hall passed on to her husband, artist John Astley (1720?–1787). From him it passed to his relative Francis Dukinfield Astley, a great sportsman; a hunter's tower was built in 1807.

John Leech, who was one of the many wealthy cotton manufacturers of the district, bought some of the land attached to the Hall from John Astley to build his mills, the ruins of which can still be seen.

New Gorse Hall was built by John Leech in 1836. Today, both houses are ruined. Their grounds cover approximately {{convert|35|acre|m2}} of meadow and woodland and are now maintained by a local community group called the Friends of Gorse Hall, established in 1999, which has leased the site from the local authority, Tameside.{{cite web | url=http://www.tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk/gorsehall.htm | title=Friends of Gorse Hall |website=Tameside History Forum }} The aim of the Friends of Gorse Hall is to promote the site for leisure, and educational uses.{{cite web |author1=FRIENDS OF GORSE HALL |title=leaflet |url=http://www.tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk/gorseleaflet.pdf |website=tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk |date=27 May 2010 |quote=Friends of Gorse Hall, was established in 1999 in cooperation with Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and Groundwork Tameside.}}

Leech's son John, bought the remainder of the estate and with stones from the local quarries built the mansion called the New Gorse Hall in 1836. John had eight children, one of whom, Helen Leech, born at Gorse Hall, was the mother of Beatrix Potter, the famous children’s author. In reference to this, there is a statue in the grounds of a small Rabbit.

"Beatrix Potter would often write and draw while visiting her family at Gorse Hall"{{cite web |last1=Barlow |first1=Nigel |title=Stalybridge wins Town of Culture status |url=https://aboutmanchester.co.uk/stalybridge-wins-town-of-culture-status/ |website=About Manchester |access-date=7 August 2022 |date=20 January 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Brett |first1=Davey |title=What's on the cards for Stalybridge as Town of Culture 2022? |url=https://confidentials.com/manchester/stalybridge-town-of-culture-2022 |website=Confidentials |publisher=Mark Garner |access-date=7 August 2022 |language=en |date=8 February 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Sergeant |first1=Emily |title=Stalybridge has been awarded a prestigious 'Town of Culture' status for 2022 |url=https://themanc.com/news/stalybridge-has-been-named-greater-manchesters-town-of-culture-for-2022/ |website=The Manc |access-date=7 August 2022 |date=20 January 2022}}

On 1 November 1909, Gorse Hall{{cite book |title=Cheshire, 1902 |publisher=Kelly's Directory |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.30136556 |access-date=7 August 2022 |language=English |quote=Gorse hall, G. Harry Storrs esq. ....Storrs George Harry, Gorse hall; Storrs James, The Hollies, Mustyn st; Storrs William, 219 Mottram road; Storrs Wm. Hy. Fern bank,Mottram rd;}} was the site of a murder{{cite web |title=The Murder |url=https://gorse-hall.co.uk/the-murder/ |website=The Friends of Gorse Hall |access-date=6 August 2022}} when local mill owner{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Samuel |title=Bygone Stalybridge, Traditional, Historical, Biographical |date=1907 |publisher=Samuel Hill |page=291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=900GAQAAIAAJ&dq=Storrs&pg=PA291 |language=en}} George Harry Storrs was stabbed to death. Two "identical"{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Charles Ainsworth |title=The Expert Witness: And the Applications of Science and of Art to Human Identification, Criminal Investigation, Civil Actions & History |date=1923 |publisher=W. Heffer & sons Limited |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p9i7uDvEhpYC&q=Gorse |language=en |quote=Gorse}} ex-soldiers, Cornelius Howard, a relative, and Mark Wilde, were tried, with the same defense attorney, but neither resulted in a conviction. A year after the murder, In the summer of 1910, his widow, Mrs. Maggie Storrs had Gorse Hall torn down, with the stone reused elsewhere,{{cite web |title=The Friends of Gorse Hall |url=https://gorse-hall.co.uk/ |website=gorse-hall.co.uk |access-date=6 August 2022}} she moved away, to

Morecambe Bay, never to return.{{cite web |title=Friends of Gorse Hall |url=https://www.tameside.gov.uk/Countryside/Friends-of-Gorse-Hall |website=Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council |access-date=6 August 2022}}

The case is examined in The Stabbing of George Harry Storrs by Jonathan Goodman.{{cite web | url=http://www.stereograffiti.com/gorse/murder.htm | title=Murder at Gorse Hall | author=Jonathan Goodman, Steve Fielding and Edith Brocklehurst | publisher=stereograffiti.com | accessdate= 2008-01-30}} and featured in an episode of the television series In Suspicious Circumstances, in 1995, and Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder, in 2005.

All that remains at this site is an old fireplace, standing alone in a concrete clearing, and floor foundations, painted a mixture of green, blue and red to show the outline of the home and where the disaster happened. Friends of Gorse Hall manage the grounds.{{cite web |title=Tameside Rotary dig deep to support The Queen's Green Canopy |url=https://www.questmedianetwork.co.uk/news/tameside-reporter/tameside-rotary-dig-deep-to-support-the-queens-green-canopy/ |website=Quest Media Network |access-date=7 August 2022 |language=en}}

• Gorse Hall Primary School, Forester Drive, Stalybridge{{cite web |title=Home |url=https://gorsehall.tameside.sch.uk/ |website=Gorse Hall Primary School |access-date=6 August 2022}} (across from former Age UK Site).
• Gorse Hall, on the old Chorley to Blackburn road, Whittle-le-Woods{{cite web |title=Townships: Whittle-le-Woods |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol6/pp32-36 |website=British History Online |access-date=7 August 2022}}{{cite web |title=Whittle le Woods, Lancashire Family History Guide |url=https://www.parishmouse.co.uk/lancashire/whittle-le-woods-lancashire-family-history-guide/ |website=Parishmouse |access-date=7 August 2022}}{{cite web |title=Whittle Springs, The History by J. Jackson |url=http://www.boydharris.co.uk/whittle_le_woods/wlw011.htm |website=boydharris.co.uk |access-date=7 August 2022}}
• Gorse Hall Rock, Lancashire geological feature{{cite book |last1=Bolton |first1=Herbert |title=The Nomenclature of the Seams of the Lancashire Lower Coal Measures |date=1898 |publisher=J.E. Cornish |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBscAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Gorse+Hall+Rock%22&pg=PA446 |language=en |quote=Gorse Hall Rock}}

• {{cite book |last1=Sully |first1=Clifford |title=Mistaken Identity |date=1925 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0t1GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Gorse+Hall%22 |language=en |quote=Gorse Hall}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Brend |first1=WA |title=The futility of the coroner's inquest |journal=The Lancet |date=1913 |volume=181 |issue=4681 |pages=1404–1408 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(00)52106-0 |url=https://scholar.archive.org/work/7f3smws2vvhynfvsubsieoyl2m/access/ia_file/crossref-pre-1923-scholarly-works/10.1016%252Fs0140-6736%252800%252951812-1.zip/10.1016%252Fs0140-6736%252800%252952106-0.pdf |access-date=7 August 2022 |quote=via scholar.archive.org}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Dabundo |first1=Laura |last2=Hitchcock |first2=James |title=Murder as One of the Liberal Arts [with replies] |journal=The American Scholar |date=1995 |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=156 |jstor=41212305 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41212305 |issn=0003-0937}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hitchcock |first1=James |title=CRIME: Murder as One of the Liberal Arts |journal=The American Scholar |date=1994 |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=277–285 |jstor=41212245 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41212245 |access-date=7 August 2022 |issn=0003-0937}}
• Hardwicke, Glyn (1974) [https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/medlgjr42 The Gorse Hall Mystery - a New Look at an Old Case], 42 Medico-Legal J. 14 HeinOnline {{doi|10.1177/002581727404200103}}
• {{cite book |last1=Luckombe |first1=Philip |author1-link=Philip Luckombe |title=The Beauties of England ... The Fifth Edition, Enlarged |date=1791 |publisher=W. Richardson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WT_clIkwvkkC&dq=%22Gorse+Hall%22&pg=PA268 |language=en |quote=Gorse Hall}}
• {{cite book |title=Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society |date=1897 |publisher=The Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM04AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Gorse+Hall%22&pg=PA24 |language=en |quote=There are also four more halls, as Clattercotes Hall, Overton Hall, Gorse Hall, and Stubbing Edge Hall. Pearsons lived at Gorse Hall.}}
• {{cite book |last1=Tilley |first1=Joseph |title=The Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire: The Scarsdale Hundred |date=1899 |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eIMAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Gorse+Hall%22&pg=PA19 |language=en |quote=Gorse Hall....Joseph Tilley (of Derby Eng.)}}

{{reflist}}

{{coord|53.476|-2.057|display=title|region:GB|format=dms}}

• [https://gorse-hall.co.uk/ The Friends of Gorse Hall]
• [http://www.tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk/gorsehall.htm The Friends of Gorse Hall] — Tameside History Forum
• [https://www.tameside.gov.uk/Countryside/Friends-of-Gorse-Hall Friends of Gorse Hall] — Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
• [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0610474/ "In Suspicious Circumstances": The Golden Goose (1995)] — IMDb

Category:Buildings and structures in Tameside

Category:Stalybridge