THE House of Hird - The Story of a Windermere Mansion and the People Who Lived There, by Ian Jones. £8 by mail order from the author Ian Jones, Cragview, Plantation Bridge, Kendal LA8 9JA, tel- 01539-821252, or £7 from Ottakers.
Ian Jones unfolds the story of Holehird, the Gothic mansion set high on the hills of Troutbeck Valley, and the three families who once lived there.
The well-illustrated book traces the origins of the Hole Herd estate (its original name) from a simple farming property to the mid-nineteenth century, when the mansion that stands today was built, and on to its current use as a Cheshire Home for disabled people.
Informative and detailed social histories weaved throughout the book trace the families who once occupied the Victorian mansion and tell the story of Holehird's final owner Henry Leigh Groves who endowed the property, estate and associated farms to Westmorland County Council as a gift to the people of Westmorland in 1945.
The author also touches on the beautiful Holehird gardens, which opened to the public during the Second World War and the ten acres which are now lovingly tended by the Lakeland Horticultural Society.
January 2, 2003 15:00
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