Walterclough Hall

Walterclough Hall, sometimes known as Water Clough Hall or Upper Walterclough, lies in the Walterclough Valley southeast of Halifax and northeast of the village of Southowram in the West Riding of Yorkshire, alongside the Red Beck.

The Hall was originally built by the Hemingway family, first recorded there in 1379 and in residence until 1654.

In that year Walterclough Hall was bought by William Walker (1596–1676), before he moved to Lower Crows Nest. The initials of his second son, Abraham Walker (1629–1695), and of his wife Anne née Langley (1643–1688), were inscribed on the building. They were non-conformists and subject to the restrictions and harassments of the day. Their second son, Richard Walker (1672–1721), inherited the Hall from his father, and when he drowned in a canal, his son John Walker inherited the Hall from him.

John Walker (1699–1771) was the squire of Walterclough Hall in the mid-18th century and a woollen factor of great prestige and wealth. While he and his wife, Ruth née Nodder, had four children—Richard (b. 1731), John (b. 1735), Grace (b. 1738) and Mary (b. 1740)—they also adopted his nephew, Jack Sharp, and provided a home for four aunts and two uncles.

John Walker’s youngest son, John, took no part in the business, so when his eldest son Richard died and John senior retired and left the district, Jack Sharp was left in possession of the business and the Hall, which he consumed with calculated avarice. In 1771, when John senior died, his surviving son John junior gave his cousin notice to quit the Hall. When he arrived from York with his new wife, he found the estate had been excessively mortgaged and most of the contents of the Hall had been removed. Only two rooms remained furnished, and what was left behind had been trashed. In 1778, Jack Sharp built Law House from the proceeds of his villainy on nearby Law Hill. Later, Miss Patchett established a Ladies Academy at Law House, and Emily Brontë taught there for six months in 1837-38. Her experiences at Law House and the now almost legendary story is believed to be the source for her only novel, Wuthering Heights.

In April 1867, the estate of the other Walker family of Crows Nest was sold by auction. This included most of the land at Hipperholme, Lightcliffe and Bailiff Bridge, as well as Crow’s Nest Mansion and Cliffe Hill Mansion. What happened to Walterclough Hall at this time is not yet known.

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