The Great and the Good of West Lancashire
THE people of Ormskirk and District will have been very familiar with the surname Stanley but not just because of the Earls of Derby, there was a junior branch of the family and they owned the Cross Hall estate on the boundary of Ormskirk and Lathom.
The Cross Hall mansion, situated around 150 yards down Ladies Walk, off Crosshall Brow, was demolished about 1804/5, a Georgian farmhouse was built over the original huge cellar and kitchens. This in turn was demolished in 1928 and red brick semi-detached farm labourer’s tied cottages were built.
The last Stanley proprietor of the Cross Hall Estate was Edward Stanley esq, descendant of Peter Stanley Esq of Bickerstaffe. His estate included New Park, Lathom; Bath Wood; Ruff Wood; Cross Hall; Cross Hall Farm; Leveldale Farm; Threlfall’s Farm and all the farmland within those farms.
Edward Stanley had married Lady Mary Maitland in 1819, daughter of the Earl of Lauderdale. They had two daughters and a son. Their eldest daughter, Lady Eleanor Julien
Stanley born 1821, left Cross Hall in 1842 to take up the post of Maid of Honour to the Queen Victoria.
Eleanor remained in service for the Queen for 20 years and left just before Prince Albert died.
Eleanor wrote many letters home to her parents and siblings describing her time with the Royal Family which were published after her death in 1903. In one letter home, Eleanor recounts an incident when she was playing the piano with young Princess Vicky and Prince Albert joined in, with all three playing the same piano.
Disraeli made his home in Ormskirk after being turned down by Blackburn Corporal James Ikin Nunnerley served with the 17th Lancers at the Battle of Alma (Sept 1854) the Siege of Sebastopol (October 17, 1854) the Battle of Balaclava -Charge of the Light Brigade being promoted to Sargeant the next day, (October 25, 1854) and the Battle of Inkerman (Nov 1854).
As one of the 600 after the infamous Charge by the 17th Lancers, Nunnerley returned to England and leaving the
Army he returned to the trade he had been apprenticed in, drapery.
He came to Ormskirk, bought a house in Moss View and settled into life in the town. He had been persuaded to come to Ormskirk by the 2nd Lord Skelmersdale, who was Colonel of the D Troop Lancashire Hussars, Nunnerley served as Drill Sergeant to the D Troop for many years.
The celebrity of being one of the 600 saw Nunnerley invited to Royal Banquets and other events hosted by many including William Cody when he brought his touring Wild West Show through England.
William Edward Heaton was born at a house in Railway Path on the Ormskirk/Bickerstaffe border on January 2, 1875. His mother Alice Lea registered his birth as William Edward Lea as she had not married his father Robert Heaton before giving birth.
William grew up in Ormskirk,
attending the Aughton Street Boys Parochial School and later working as a coal miner in Bickerstaffe.
He enlisted in the 1st Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment and served in South Africa during the Boer War.
‘At Geluk, on August 23, 1900, Private Heaton’s company, while advancing in front of the general line held by our troops, was surrounded, and, coming under a raking fire, was suffering most severely. The position becoming serious, the Commanding Officer requested Heaton to convey a message back, explaining the precarious situation in which the company stood, and asking for relief.
At the greatest possible risk, Heaton successfully accomplished his mission, and there is no doubt that but for his great courage in undertaking so hazardous a duty, his company would have had a very heavy death-toll and been forced to surrender.’
Queen Victoria conferred a Victoria Cross on William in January 1902. He died in 1941 after helping to establish the British Legion in Ormskirk and being a member of the Old Comrades Club.
Muriel Gladys Hutton was one of the eight daughters of William Leak Hutton, owner of the Ormskirk Advertiser. Prior to WW1 Gladys was a nurse at the Liverpool Infirmary but she joined the Queen Alexandra Royal Naval Nursing Services at the start of the war.
Gladys served on board ship all through the Dardanelles Campaign. In June 1918 in the King’s Birthday Honours list Gladys was awarded the Royal Red Cross 1st Class.
Gladys spent months going from one city to the next on the hospital ship and was at the evacuation of Suvla Bay, the last six troops pulled aboard from the war zone were under her care on board ship.
The evacuation of 105,000 men and 300 guns from Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay was successfully conducted from 10-20 December 1915.
Gladys was then transferred to the North Sea on the same hospital ship and had to deal with the rescued men from HMS Hampshire , the ship which was sunk with Lord Kitchener on board.