Thursday, December 13, 2007

Lancaster House - garden renovation

A request from Paul Cotton (readys@blueyonder.co.uk), Head Gardener at Lancaster House - can members of the Parbold Ainscough family (Mary, Tony, Stephen, Sheila) help with any old photographs/ images of Lancaster House showing original detail of the garden?

Hugh & Susan (Fairclough) Ainscough

Parbold 1880- Lancaster House
On Wednesday, December 12, 2007, at 01:31PM, wrote:

Hello Barbara,
My name is Paul Cotton, Head Gardener for Sisters of Notre Dame at Lancaster House.
I've just came across your blog and was excited to see an old painting of LH from around C19. We are undergoing renovation of the gardens and have, unsuccessfully, been trying to locate any info/plans etc of how the garden looked - it has over the last decades suffered quite badly. Where does the picture come from/live? I'd be grateful for any more info/details you may be able to supply...? Thank you.


Hi Paul
Great to hear from you. Permission to use this image was given to me from Anthony and Mary Ainscough (brother and sister)- I dont have the original. They are direct descendants of Hugh (of H&R) and Susan (Fairclough) Ainscough of Lancaster House, their grandfather John was one of the sons of Hugh - John Ainscough (1863-1937) m Martha Whitwell (1869-1958). Anthony still lives in the area as does his brother Stephen. You might be able to contact them and other family members via the RC church in Parbold perhaps through Father Gordon or other members of the parish. I'm sure there are many more similar images out there.

Also Anthony Lawrence Ainscough (1906-1986), Prior of Ampleforth College was the third and youngest son of Thomas (1865-1927)first class cricketer, Lancashire and Jane Ainscough. When Anthony was about 12 they moved to Lancaster House, Parbold, the old family home - perhaps family members here may have more recent photos? Mary Ainscough (1st cousin once removed to Anthony) says that Anthony Lawrence's siblings were Gerald and Joseph, Im sure the Ainscoughs of Parbold will have detail.
Let me know how you get on and good luck! Any chance we could all take a walk around the gardens when you have restored them??
B


On Thursday, December 13, 2007, at 10:29AM, wrote:
Thanks for your reply Barbara. Please do feel free to give my email out.
As you know the Ainscoughs were a wealthy family so I'm sure there must be images out there. Certainly I feel the garden was 'professionally' laid out/designed - grotto, sunken fountain garden, orchard, woodland walk. As I said previously the garden is in some disrepair and we have had some thefts over the years with a number of original urns stolen. A Mr Ainsough lives local on a farm off Lancaster Lane but he attends St Josephs Church in nearby Wrightington - is he a family member? There are
also two Ainscoughs who appear in The Times Rich List. If you do find yourself in the area please do call in for the grand tour! Thanks again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

pretty cool I hope It goes a long way.0

Totalrenovering said...

Wow Fabulous, I like it. Thanks and congrats!