Holdsworth House

Holdsworth House is currently used as a four star hotel with 38 rooms.[3] The restaurant has been given a two rosette rating by the AA.[4]

The present house may have been built in 1598 although the date stone above the front porch bears the initials and date A.B. 1633. Abraham Brigg owned the manor about this time but according to one historian he is unlikely to have built it.[6] He is said to have wasted his estate and given way to drink. In 1657 he sold it to Henry Wadsworth of Peacock House, Warley. The Wadsworth family owned the property for more than two hundred years, until 1895.[7]

Although Henry Wadsworth owned Holdsworth House from 1657 he retained his residence in Warley where he died in 1671.[8] The next residents were John and Deborah Wadsworth who carved their initials with the date 1680 on the west porch. They lived at the house for over 30 years. There is a memorial in Halifax Church which is dedicated to them.[9] John died in 1715. His will is in the Prerogative and Exchequer Courts of York Probate collection 1688-1858.

Their son Henry Wadsworth (1697-1765) inherited the house. He and his wife Mary lived there for many years. She died in 1745 and after Henry died in 1765 his son Reverend John Wadsworth became the owner.

Engraving of Holdsworth House in 1835

Reverend John Wadsworth (1720-1782) was born in 1720. In 1752 he married Elizabeth Hemmingway (1719-1804) the daughter of Samuel Hemingway, of Boldshay Hall in Bradford.[10] The couple had several children all of whom except one died before 1800. The surviving child was Elizabeth Wadsworth (1760-1837). She did not marry and kept a diary which outlined some of her life at Holdsworth House. The diaries date from 1815 to 1829 and [11]'complete a trilogy of early 19th century diaries written by local ladies, all covering the same period but viewing its events from different angles. Anne Lister wrote from 1815 to 1840, Caroline Walker from 1812 to 1830; and Elizabeth Wadsworth from 1817 to 1829.' An account of Christmas day in 1825 can be read here

Elizabeth Wadsworth was known to be generous to the poor and founded the Popples Almshouses and School, which since became Bradshaw Primary School. She also helped fund and make plans for the foundation of St John’s Church, Bradshaw. She died in 1837 and was buried in St Winfreds Churchyard, Calverley with her mother and two older brothers.[12] She was the last surviving Wadsworth so she left her estate to a distant relative Matthew Henry Ayrton.

Matthew Henry Ayrton (1818-1860) upon inheriting the Wadsworth estates was required as a condition to assume their name which he did in 1840 to become Matthew Henry Wadsworth. In 1842 he married Sarah Firth.[13] The couple had four children, two sons and two daughters. He died in 1860 and his eldest son John Henry Wadsworth (1850-1877) inherited the house. In 1870 John who was an architect married Annie Eliza Hodgson and the couple had two sons. Unfortunately John died in 1877 at the age of only 27.[14] Annie Eliza decided to rent the house and move to smaller accommodation. One of the tenants was Henry Edwin Moore who was a Professor of Music. He lived at the house from about 1885 until about 1905.[15]

In 1895 Annie Eliza Wadsworth died[16] and the family sold the house to Richard Ayrton Woodhead. He did not live at the house but instead continued to lease it. He died in 1901 and his son Sidney Woodhead inherited the property. In about 1910 Norman Scott Crawshaw rented the house and in 1921 he bought it. He continued to live there until about 1935 when it was bought by Thomas Ashworth Hoyle.[17]

Thomas Ashworth Hoyle (1905-1981) was born in 1905. In 1932 he bought the textile firm James Acroyd and Sons. In the next year he married Marjorie Ayrton Broadhead but unfortunately she died in 1937.[18] In 1938 he married Hazel Smith daughter of Samuel Smith of Manor Holme, Halifax. The Hoyle family lived at Holdsworth House until about 1962 when it was bought by the Pearson family who still own the property, which is no longer a private house but a hotel and restaurant.

The house has been used as a television setting including for Jamie Oliver, and Last Tango in Halifax.[19][20]