Bank House, site of
 

Hi, not many of us can remember this view, but .. you will know what is now built upon it! Its the site of Queen Elizabeth Crescent, just off Sandy Lane. Bet not many of you realised such a lovely house has once been there.

Can't remember this at all. Mind you Sandy Lane was bandit country to us lads from Church.

It still is Darby. Mind you, that piccy looks a bit gothic; who lived there - Dracula?

My Grandmother used to be housekeeper at Bank House, I think the name of the family who lived there was Smith.

Re: Bank House, site of
 

Re: the picture of Bank house could this be the house called bank house that Sir Thomas Edward Higham lived at ?.

Re: Bank House, site of
 

Yes
He used to go up Adelaide St, in his chaufeur driven Rolls Royce every evening Mon to Fri about 5-30. Never saw him on foot anywhere.

Retlaw

Re: Bank House, site of
 

Hi Atarah
This is intended to be my first of many posts on Bank House.

You picture is I assume of the right hand side of the building. I have attached a plan of the site dated 1895. Some of it is blurred and I have tried where possible to clarify some of the descriptions.

It would appear the entrance to the site was via the side adjacent to the present Ambulance Station. The Gate posts are still there. On passing through the Gate you would have entered Carriage Road (This text is blurred so if someone has evidence of this please let me know).

I have enhanced the image and coloured in sections for clarity.

If anyone knows any more about Bank House and its occupants, please can you add to the post.

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I remember going there for Oak Street Congregational Church Garden Parties in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sir Thomas Higham had died by then. I can remember the house, the car, and the chauffeur who used to bring Lady Higham and her spinster sister-in-law to church.

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Hi Blankhouse, Nice to see the thread back up! I am sure there must be lots of information available about this lovely house.

Bank House
 

Hi, have just found two views showing some of the remaining wall of Bank House. This is around the back of the properties, nearest to the Ambulance Station.

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I'd never heard about Bank House before seeing this thread. Strange as from what I glean from these posts, it outlasted many of the other large houses in the area. I' constantly amazed at how many of these grand houses of the pre-terraced town there seem to have been.

Re: Bank House, site of
 

Bank House was erected on part of the site of Woolhurst Bank from which the name comes. It was built by Robert Hargreaves, of the firm of Hargreaves Bros., of Broak Oak, Accrington, and was erected in the Italian style of architecture, with well wooded grounds. He was the first Chairman of the Accrington Local Board, and father of Mrs Robertson Aikman (she donated many items to the musem of Accrington).

Earlier residents of Bank House were:- the Greens, the Briggs-Bury and then the Highams family. Alderman T. E. Higham was the 1928 Jubilee Mayor of Accrington.

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Thanks Atarah

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Just found this, whilst researching an artist, re: Sir Thomas Higham.


'Sir Thomas Edward Higham, J.P. (1867-1947) was the third son of Eli Higham, and was educated at Haywood's Academy, Accrington, and Silcoates School. He joined the family firm in 1882, taking over the business in 1896, on the death of his father. They owned a merchanting business in Manchester, as well as spinning, bleaching, finishing and making-up at the Victoria Mill. Sir Thomas had one of the most prolific careers in public service in Accrington: elected Town Councillor 1901, Mayor in 1906-1907 and the Jubilee year 1927-1928, County Councillor in 1905, and Alderman in 1908. He served as chairman of the Electricity Committee, was appointed High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1945, and knighted the following year. He became the first Freeman of Accrington in 1928.

As to art, he was obviously a generous benefactor. Beyond that, however, he was one of the principal driving forces in developing the cultural environment in the region. It was Sir Thomas who arranged the Loan Exhibition at the Carnegie Library in 1908, which provided the seed for what would become the Library Collection, later to be transferred to the Haworth Gallery in 1921. It is notable that most of the important donors in Accrington and Blackburn loaned paintings to the exhibition, including William Haworth, who would bequeath Hollis House (the Haworth Gallery building) and a substantial collection to the town, Richard Haworth, the Blackburn art dealer, George Nuttal, whose collection would also enrich the gallery, Henry Harrison of Blackburn, and Sir Thomas himself, who loaned his Vernet and would later donate it to the town. It would be fitting to quote here, in Sir Thomas's own words, the introduction to the exhibition catalogue:

§The main object of the Exhibition is to enable the whole of our community to enjoy for a short period, the privilege and pleasure of seeing some of the best pictures which it is possible to get together in this district, and thus, to foster a taste and desire for Art of the highest character in our midst.

§It would be a satisfactory achievement if this exhibition should prove to be the forerunner of a permanent Art Gallery in our town, and [...] I hope the suggestion may not be thought ungracious by those who can aid in forming such a desirable institution.§ (Catalogue of the loan Exhibition of Pictures, Organised by His Worship the Mayor, Held in the Carnegie Library, February and March, 1908, Accrington, 1908.'
Full Record*NIRP*- VADS: the online resource for visual arts

Incidentally one of my classmates at school was a descendent of his, and bore the same name.

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The Welcome to Ossy sign was like a border crossing on the way to school from Church, the bandits where usually outside the sweetshop waiting to snaffle my liqourice root.