Simonswood Hall, Kirkby

[Tina]

Talk about thick
I thought will pr meant he would send a private message

Dorothy Woods married Wm Bullen 1858.
Tina

[MaryA]

Dorothy Woods married Wm Bullen 1858.

Probably another Kirkby family - Bullens Road in Southdene, about a mile from Simonswood, many streets named after householders in the mid 1800's, Westhead, Shacklady, Boyes etc.

[Tina]

The will of Nancy Woods late of Simonswood widow deceased 5 Sept 1865
effects under 1,500 pounds to
John Woods of St Aidan's College Birkenhead
Theological student and William Bullen
7 Walton Breck Rd Everton

Tina

[dlh1]

If I'm correct, 1,500 pounds was quite a lot of money back then.

How can we view detailed probate records? Is there a way about this?

[daggers]

The system for applying for copies of English wills [from 1858] is set out here:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/cour ... s/probate/

Look down the left-hand column.

D

[mrbigdog]

Hi Tina,

Doing some research on the house now (Simonswood Hall) and it seems that The WOODS family, lived in Simonswood (at Bridge Farm from the early 1800s to the 1920s) and many family baptisms, marriages and burials took place at St Chad's church. The family left Simonswood in 1951 and moved to Formby.

[mrbigdog]

I am descended from William Woods and Nancy Shacklady, who married in 1825. The Woods lived then at Simonswood. Was that at Simonswood Hall? I would be interested in more information about the house.

Looks like the Woods family lived at Bridge Farm in Simonswood from 1800's to 1920's. I suspect from my early research that Henry Heyes Glover and Elizabeth Moleneux (Glover) may have lived at Simonswood Hall at that time before it was then primarily inhabited by the Shacklady's from 1841 to 1891 and then the Appleton's between 1901 and 1911. I then have a big gap to 1934 where the Critchley's lived at the Hall between 1934 and 1970. I'm not sure what happened to the house after that but it suffered a fire and may have spent some time empty.

Best wishes.

Paul.

[dickiesam]

If I'm correct, 1,500 pounds was quite a lot of money back then.

As a rough guide, in 1860, £1,500 would have the same spending worth of £64,740.00 in 2005.

[Emma]

Hello all, I'm not sure if this helps anybody now but I was bought up on the estate on the other side of the river alt. me and my friends used to hang around on the fields on both sides of the road that runs through simmonswood. One day we were standing on the fields adage that is right facing the hall when we saw something that we were confused by, because of this we decided to knock in the cottages doors to ask the people who lived in the area if they had any information about Simmons wood hall and a older man told me that it was once used as a girls orphanage. When we found this out we were all very shocked because it agreed with the reason we decided to knock in the first place. Apparently the girls never looked happy and were never allowed out of the grounds of the hall.

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

That snippet is very interesting, I didn't know about it. Do you have any approximate date for when it might have been an orphanage?

[Emma]

Hi, sorry I don't remember the man telling us a date but I got the impression it was in his life time he said he used to see them so it was in the last say 40-60 years or so. Also in the 70s a older woman lived in Simmons wood hall on her own and she owned a lot of cats. Her name was mrs cook.