Peter T Posted October 31, 2011 Report Share Posted October 31, 2011 Peter, without trawling through records in the Library, I honestly can't tell you, although it was an imposing building there is not much known about it, the Naylor family were relatively private though they did a lot of good in the town, possibly inheritance tax may have been a problem or perhaps it fell into disrepair I don't know. When I have time I shall try the library and if I find out I shall enter it on here. Ok Algy. Thanks, but don't go out of your way. I was just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 I guess Cuerden Hall also became known as Oyster Hall because of the thousands of shells which adorned the rockeries to gardens and pleasure grounds of the hall. This 'landscaping' would have taken place after 1871 when John and Robert Naylor, sons of John Naylor, founder of Naylors Timber in Warrington in 1872, walked from John O'Groat's to Lands End and before starting their trek they filled hampers with shells from a beach and sent them to Warrington by sea. Perhaps there are remains of the shells in the present gardens to the properties in Cuerden Drive where the hall grounds stood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted February 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 I guess Cuerden Hall also became known as Oyster Hall because of the thousands of shells which adorned the rockeries to gardens and pleasure grounds of the hall. This 'landscaping' would have taken place after 1871 when John and Robert Naylor, sons of John Naylor, founder of Naylors Timber in Warrington in 1872, walked from John O'Groat's to Lands End and before starting their trek they filled hampers with shells from a beach and sent them to Warrington by sea. Perhaps there are remains of the shells in the present gardens to the properties in Cuerden Drive where the hall grounds stood. Pedro, here is a photo page from the book describing the Naylor brothers walk, the gardens at the rear of the property had the oyster shells in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Good grief I never expected that When Pedro mantioned 'thousands of shells' I just though he meant they were scattered on the flower beds like we do with bark and stones. Dare I say that it does all look a bit tacky though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleopatra Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 It looks Gross. Was thinking the shells were scattered between the plants. 1st picture, bottom right, Mary...Mary...Quite contrary...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 It looks Gross. Was thinking the shells were scattered between the plants. 1st picture, bottom right, Mary...Mary...Quite contrary...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 It looks Gross. Was thinking the shells were scattered between the plants. 1st picture, bottom right, Mary...Mary...Quite contrary...? Probably why there are not many photos in existence, the Naylor's must have enjoyed a heck of a lot of day's out at the seaside. :grin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teessidewire Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Probably why there are not many photos in existence, the Naylor's must have enjoyed a heck of a lot of day's out at the seaside. :grin: Some thing I've always wondered, were Naylors the Timber Merchants related to Naylors who ran the buses? I went to Appleton Grammar with John Naylor Jnr from the Bus Company, and then worked at the Timber Merchants in a couple of summer holidays when I was a student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Oops! sorry guys - pressed wrong button on my last post - hence quotes with no comment. Describing the Cuerden Hall shell clad rockeries as 'tacky' and 'gross' from black and white pics is forgetting that we are looking at late Victoriana here when many wealthy business men and land owners constructed their follys. The Naylors are known to have been generous in entertaining local children from poor circumstances and the unusual ornate rockeries would be an attraction. As I posted earlier when reviving this topic, the shells were gathered from a beach close to John O'Groat's and shipped to Warrington before John and Robert Naylor started out on their walk to Lands End and recorded in Robert Naylor's book thought to have been the first recorded account of this since frequenly trod long distance walk although departing from the 'crow's flight'. Obviously you have the book Algy, which contains the rockery pics and having been published for presentation only is now something of a collector's piece. Mine came as a gift from a lady, Jane Brudenell, some 40 years ago. Jane had been the District Nurse in Daresbury and helped bring me into the World in 19?? - later becoming private Nurse to Lord Nuffield but remaining a family friend until her death.. Although Cuerden Hall is believed to have been demolised in the early 1950s the Naylors had built and occupied Beeston Towers South of Tarporley pre 1900 - now a Hotel on the A49 which became the Wild Boar. I don't think Naylors Coaches and Travel Agents in Stockton Heath were related to the Timber Merchants and same can be said of the Warrington sweets manufacturers - Mr Toffee Naylor who lived near Appleton Resevoir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 PASSAGE FROM:- The Project Gutenberg EBook of From John O'Groats to Land's End by Robert Naylor and John Naylor This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: From John O'Groats to Land's End Author: Robert Naylor and John Naylor Release Date: December 22, 2004 [EBook #14415] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 We had a splendid view of the mountains and sea, and stayed as usual on the cliffs until the pangs of hunger compelled us to return to Stromness, where we knew that a good tea was waiting for us. At one point on our way back the Heads of Hoy strangely resembled the profile of the great Sir Walter Scott, and this he would no doubt have seen when collecting materials for The Pirate. We had heard both in Shetland and Orkney that when we reached John o' Groat's we should find an enormous number of shells on the beach, and as we had some extensive rockeries at home already adorned with thousands of oyster shells, in fact so many as to cause our home to be nicknamed "Oyster Shell Hall," we decided to gather some of the shells when we got to John o'Groat's and send them home to our friends. The question of packages, however, seemed to be rather a serious one, as we were assured over and over again we should find no packages when we reached that out-of-the-way corner of Scotland, and that in the whole of the Orkney Islands there were not sufficient willows grown to make a single basket, skip, or hamper. So after tea we decided to explore the town in search of a suitable hamper, and we had some amusing experiences, as the people did not know what a hamper was. At length we succeeded in finding one rather ancient and capacious basket, but without a cover, whose appearance suggested that it had been washed ashore from some ship that had been wrecked many years ago, and, having purchased it at about three times its value, we carried it in triumph to our lodgings, to the intense amusement of our landlady and the excited curiosity of the Stromnessians. THE COMPLETE BOOK MAY BE READ OR COPIED FROM THIS SITE:- http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wakefield/history/14415-h/14415-h.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 might download that for my ereader later. sounds quite interesting, not something I would normally read but after reading that little excerpt has got my interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 Algy - thanks for reminding me that there were already collected shells at Cuerden Hall BEFORE the Naylor brothers epic walk ftom John O'Groat's - read the book many years ago and had forgotten the passage on shells. As you say probably many trips from Warrington to the seaside - a wealthy and lucky family at that time. I had come across the opportunity to download the book and passed this info on to present manager of the Beeston hotel who let me have a look in the 'tower' - I guess my book's value has been decimated by the download - saw one on ebay a couple of years ago - £50 but sounded in poor condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted March 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 There are two for sale on Amazon at the moment, both hardbacks 1916, one at £19 the other at £72. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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