The Waterhead estate was bought in the eighteenth century from the
Thompsons by William Ford of Monk Coniston (see Mr. H. S. Cowper's
_History of Hawkshead_, p. xvi.), and came to George Knott (d.
1784) by marriage with a Miss Ford. Mr. Knott was mentioned by
Father West as having "made many beautiful improvements on his
estate." In 1822 a view of the modern "Gothic" front of the
house, now called Monk Coniston Hall, was given in the _Lonsdale
Magazine_. The poet Wordsworth is said to have advised in the
laying out of the gardens. From Mr. Michael Knott the place was
bought by James Garth Marshall, Esq., M.P. for Leeds, whose son,
Victor Marshall, Esq., J.P., still holds it.
Holywath was built by Mr. John Barratt, the manager of the mines
in their prosperous days, and afterwards held by his daughter,
the wife of Colonel Bousfield. Mr. William Barratt, his cousin,
built Holly How on the site of an old cottage; it was afterwards
tenanted by Mrs. Benson, and is now occupied by Mrs. Kennington.
Mr. William Barratt's son, James W. H. Barratt, Esq., J.P., now
lives at Holywath.
In 1848 Miss Creighton of Bank Ground built Lanehead, on the site
of the old Half-penny Alehouse, for Dr. Bywater, who tenanted it
for many years. Miss Creighton left the estate to the Rev. H. A.
Starkie; the house was occupied later by Mrs. Melly, and since
1892 by W. G. Collingwood.
Coniston Bank replaces the old homestead of Townend. It was held
in 1819 by Thomas North, Esq.; in 1849, by Henry Smith, Esq.; in
1855, by Wordsworth Smith, Esq.; subsequently by Major Benson
Harrison, who let it for a time to George W. Goodison, Esq., C.E.,
J.P., and then to Thomas Docksey, Esq. In 1897 it was sold to Mrs.
Arthur Severn, who sold it to its present occupant, H. P. Kershaw,
Esq.
Brantwood, that is to say the nucleus of the present house, was
built at the end of the eighteenth century by Mr. Woodville on
a site bought from the Gaskarths. It was sold to Edward Copley,
Esq., of Doncaster, whose widow died there in 1830. In 1849 it
was in the occupation of Josiah Hudson, Esq., and the early home
of his son, the Rev. Charles Hudson, a founder of the Alpine
Club, and one of the party of young Englishmen who first climbed
Mont Blanc without guides. He joined in the first ascent of the
Matterhorn, 1865, and was killed in the accident on the descent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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