Carr House is a 17th-century house within the

Bank Hall Bank Hall is a Jacobean mansion in Bretherton, Lancashire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building and is at the centre of a private estate, surrounded by parkland. The hall was built on the site of an older house in 1608 by the Banastres ...

Estate, half-way between the villages of

Tarleton Tarleton is a village and civil parish in the borough of West Lancashire, Lancashire, England. It situated in the Lancashire mosslands approximately 10 miles north east of Southport, approximately 10 miles south west of Preston, approximately ...

and

Much Hoole Much Hoole is a village and civil parish in the borough of South Ribble, Lancashire, England. The parish of Much Hoole had a population of 1,851 at the time of the 2001 census, increasing to 1,997 at the 2011 Census. History Hoole derives from ...

at the extreme north-west of the village of

Bretherton Bretherton is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, situated to the south west of Leyland and east of Tarleton. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 669. Its name suggests pre-con ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. The building faces south to the Bretherton road, from which it stands back some distance, and has a foreyard inclosed on the west side by farm buildings.

The Stone family

Carr House is the ancestral home of the Stone Family. The house was built in 1613 by Thomas Stone, a

haberdasher In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...

from London, and his brother Andrew, a merchant from Amsterdam. The local church of St. Michael was built in 1628 and was a gift to the people of the local villages of

Croston Croston is a village and civil parish near Chorley in Lancashire, England. The River Yarrow flows through the village. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 2,917. History Croston was founded in the 7th century when ...

and

by Thomas and Andrew, who also built a manor house for the rector of St Michael's. John gave the church its font and his wife donated the silver goblets and plate that are still used in the church today for communion. Andrew shipped goods to England via

Hoole Hoole is a suburb in the east of Chester, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The area is contiguous with Newton to the north and Vicars Cross to the south. The A41 road marks t ...

and Richard Stone imported Irish panel boards and timber in 1604 for the Shuttleworth family, who were then building

Gawthorpe Hall Gawthorpe Hall is an Elizabethan country house on the banks of the River Calder, in Ightenhill, a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley, Lancashire, England. Its estate extends into Padiham, with the Stockbridge Drive entrance situated there. ...

, with 1,000 pieces, storing them till needed in Hoole's tithe barn.

Architecture

The house was built in 1613 and has two wings to each side of a central porch. The building is built of red bricks which have weathered over the centuries to give a pleasant warm colour, with a blue-brick diaper pattern similar to work of the same period at

, Hoole Church and

Rufford Old Hall Rufford Old Hall is a National Trust property in Rufford, Lancashire, England. Built in about 1530 for Sir Robert Hesketh, only the Great Hall survives from the original structure. A brick-built wing in the Jacobean style was added in 1661, at ...

, with stone quoins of irregular length. Externally the building has not been altered very much since construction as all the old stone mullioned windows remain as they are, therefore the brick work is unaltered. Blue slates cover the roof instead of the usual stone slabs which can be found on most of the old brick houses in Lancashire from this time period. The porch is the main feature of the front, being centrally situated, and rising to the third-story attic space. There are ten windows on the front facade, four on the ground floor, five on the first, and one in the attic, with hood moulds; all have four panes of leaded glass, except those over the porch, which have five. Between the upper and lower windows are four vertical cuts in the brickwork which are now filled in with plaster/cement; the history behind them is said to have been a partial evasion of the

window tax Window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France, and Ireland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax, some houses from the pe ...

, the argument being that the upper and lower windows are connected, therefore counting as one. An inscription in raised letters on the stone head of the doorway reads: ''Thomas Stones of London haberdasher and Andrewe Stones of Amsterdam merchant hath builded this howse of their owne charges and giveth the same unto their brother John Stones: Ano domni 1613. Laus.'' The inscription is curiously divided towards the end by the head of the doorway breaking into it. The walls of the upper rooms are stated to have been formerly panelled in oak, but the panelling is said to have been removed to Bank Hall in 1832 when that building was renovated. An important feature of the house is a rare cage

newel A newel, also called a central pole or support column, is the central supporting pillar of a staircase. It can also refer to an upright post that supports and/or terminates the handrail of a stair banister (the "newel post"). In stairs having str ...

staircase; four inner newel posts rise to the full height of the stairwell without interruption.

Jeremiah Horrocks

It is commonly said that

Jeremiah Horrocks Jeremiah Horrocks (16183 January 1641), sometimes given as Jeremiah Horrox (the Latinised version that he used on the Emmanuel College register and in his Latin manuscripts), – See footnote 1 was an English astronomer. He was the first person ...

made his observation of the transit of Venus, 24 Nov. 1639, from the room above the porch while living at Carr House as the guest and lodger of Mr. Stone. It is also believed that Jeremiah Horrocks was the tutor to the Stone family's children.

Dolls Museum

Carr House was once home to a Dolls Museum that housed the Barry Elder Collection. The collection is now in the Judges' Lodgings Museum in Lancaster. The building is a private residence again.Richard Peace; Lancashire Curiosities; The Dovecote Press, Wimborne, Dorset, 1997, p. 79

References

External links