A Hoole story
When we selected Hoole related images to appear on the panels introducing our new centre on the Lightfoot Street wall, we had no idea how many spellings of Hoole we would discover. Visit them in person to see just how many - and enjoy five highlights from our collections with links to Hoole here.
Newton Hollows is a unique hollow-way or sunken lane. It may have originally been worn down as a trackway used by members of local British tribes and later became part of the Roman route for civilians moving people and goods between the legionary fortress of Chester and the important Roman manufacturing centre at Wilderspool (Warrington).
The Chester to Warrington route passing through Hoole was still significant enough to merit inclusion in John Ogilby’s road maps first published in 1675. Most of his maps are for roads radiating from London, only a few cross country routes are included. The scale is an inch to a mile and they include compass roses and landmarks, rivers and hills to guide travellers.
Now we have the stories of two Thomas Baldwins separated by centuries but with Hoole in common.
Thomas Baldwin was born in 1742 the son of Reverend John Baldwin who had built Hoole Hall. In September 1785 Thomas rented a hot air balloon, making his first and only solo flight.
He took off from Chester Castle, passing over Chester and almost over his home at Hoole. During the flight he made sketches from which he later prepared the first ever view of the earth seen from above. He finally landed at Rixton Moss, near Warrington after a bumpy ‘touch down’ at Kingsley.
He took a highly scientific approach described and illustrated in detail in his book “Airopaidia”.
Our other Thomas Baldwin was born in 1859 in Burton, Westmorland. His older sister had moved to Chester and by the time of the 1881 census Thomas had followed her.
It shows Thomas, a tailor aged 22, lodging at 18 Charlotte Street where he met Elizabeth Riley aged 24, a dressmaker.
Thomas and Elizabeth married in 1882 and set up a greengrocery business at 8 Charles Street, the only one in Hoole. They continued to sell fruit and vegetables for the next 65 years, making deliveries with horse and cart, the horse was called ‘Charlie’.
Thomas and Elizabeth had responded to Hoole’s growing population in the 19th century with a new and flourishing business. Jane Carver took on the provision of education for the new community.
In the late 1850s Jane Carver, concerned about the welfare of the many children living in Hoole, hired rooms to provide education and a Sunday School. Realising that the children also needed day school education she convinced the then Marquis of Westminster to build a school on land in Peploe Street. John Douglas was the architect, and it was one of his first buildings. The plan show that it was designed for 150 infants and 150 girls. It opened in 1865.
In March 1893, the Duke of Westminster financed the extension shown on the plan which was opened in April 1895. Reorganisation of education after 1944 resulted in falling numbers and led to its closure in 1972 and it became a Polytechnic to Chester College. In 1987 the school was converted to a community centre.
