Churchfield House, Great Harwood.

Built by surgeon Mr. Henry Ainsworth Grime on part of a field called Churchfield leased from James Lomax in 1851.

By 1857

it had become the home of Joseph Haydock, spirit merchant in Blackburn, member of the Nuisance Committee from 1855 and Local Board from 1863. His son Milton was also a Local Board member and in 1895 became a councillor on the newly formed Urban District Council.
Milton and his wife were childless so when Milton died in 1926 he directed that his estate was held in trust for his wife then should pass to the U.D.C. for the benefit of the people of the town, the house to be a free library, the gardens to provide a pleasure ground for the townspeople and the income from the residue of the estate to be used to pay for outgoings in respect of Churchfield House. Any remainder from the annual income was to be used "in works of public improvement to the ornamentation of the town" ........ but ....... "not to be applied to purposes for which the Urban District Council usually provided out of rates".

Mrs. Haydock died in 1936 by which time a temporary library had already been built in 1930. It proved impractical to convert the house into a library so to comply with the terms of the will Churchfield House was used as a reference library and a room was set aside for people to read the daily papers which were provided.
During the Second World War the greenhouse was used for raising seedlings to be planted by allotment holders in the "DIG FOR VICTORY" campaign and for growing mushrooms and tomatoes.
Much restoration was carried out to the building and to the books left by Mr. Haydock between 1990 - 1992. Further work has been carried out by the Churchfield House Trust and rooms are available for local groups' meetings, seminars, classes and social functions.

This map isn't the original plan with the Assent but does show the three different plots which became Churchfield Park numbered 31, 130 and 221.
The dark line is a crease but shows north quite accurately.

1 LRO: DDLX 8/16 Lease 0n or about 1st November 1851
2 Great Harwood Gleanings, Louie Pollard, 1978, Lancs County Council. Page 119
3 Great Harwood Gleanings, Louie Pollard, 1978, Lancs County Council. Page 121

Old Harwood, Louie Pollard and Harry E. Eaton, (Great Harwood Civic Society, 1973) Page 33
Great Harwood Gleanings, Louie Pollard, (Lancs County Council 1978) Passim
A Great Harwood Miscellany, Louie Pollard. Pages 40, 46
1066. Great Harwood from William the Conqueror to the Millennium, Louie Pollard, (Great Harwood Civic Society 1999) Page 30

Last updated 17th April 2020 by ifinwig
Any rights I can claim are. Any rights belonging to others aren't

GREAT HARWOOD

Churchfield House and Park