XBO Ollery Hall Farm Cunnington – Halsall Family Histories

Ollery Hall Farm - Cunnington Family

The Cunnington family occupied Ollery Hall Farm from 1922 until 2018 – a total of 96 years! Four times as long as John Dickinson and virtually twice as long as the Howard family.

Celia Cunnington 🌳 (nee Rimmer) married John Dickinson 🌳, the current tenant of Ollery Hall Farm in January 1922. He was her second husband; her first husband and father of her three children was William Cunnington 🌳 who died in 1911 of gastroenteritis and exhaustion at the young age of 47.

William Cunnington

William Cunnington came from a long line of gamekeepers and following family tradition, he became a gamekeeper himself.

He was born in Exton, Rutland in 1863 to Abigail Clements and Henry Cunnington. Henry was a gamekeeper on the Earl of Gainsborough’s Estate at Exton.

At the age of 17, William had gained his first position as a gamekeeper at Campden House, Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Sadly, his mother, Abigail, passed away in 1886 and shortly afterwards his father remarried.

William made the decision to move north, having gained employment in Halsall. We next see him in the records marrying Celia Catherine Rimmer, a dairy maid working on her father’s farm in New Cut Lane, Halsall. Initially the newly married couple lived in Cross Lane (according to the 1901 census it was somewhere between the Rectory – now Halsall House and Summerwood Lane). It was here that their three children were born: Ellen Abigail🌳 in 1892, William Richard 🌳 in 1895 and Walter Thomas 🌳 in 1900.

We can surmise that William had a very good relationship with his colleague Charlie Whittle 🌳 because looking at the baptism record of Walter, we can see that Charlie Whittle was one of Walter’s god-parents. The other god-parents, Thomas 🌳 and Sarah Rimmer 🌳 were Celia’s siblings. In fact, Sarah married Charlie Whittle in 1901 and the couple lived at Rainbag, Carr Moss Lane until their deaths in 1942.

Celia Cunnington & Children

William, Celia and their young children left Halsall and moved to Birkdale after their children were born. William also changed occupations and became a gardener. Sadly however, as mentioned previously, William became ill in early 1911 and died on 10th February that year.

The census for 1911, taken on 2nd April, shows Celia as a widow with her children living at 75 Liverpool Road South. Her son, young William Richard instantly became the breadwinner of the family at the age of 15. He is listed as being a jobbing gardener.

Five years later, with Great Britain in the depths of war, William Richard enlisted and was called up for service on 22nd May 1918. He was signed up to the Welsh Guards on 23rd May 1918 and de-mobilised on 23rd February 1919. Looking at the Military Records, we notice their address was Carr Moss Lane, Halsall. The family must have returned to Halsall because William Richard and Walter found employment on farms in the area.

In the 1921 census we can see them still living on Carr Moss Lane. William Richard and Walter were working as agricultural labourers for Richard Brade 🌳 , a farmer on New Cut Lane. Richard was actually a relative having married into the family on Celia’s side – the Rimmers.

John Dickinson and Ollery Hall Farm

As already mentioned, less than a year later, Celia married for a second time – her new husband being John Dickinson, previously a teamsman at Barton House Farm, John had acquired the tenancy of Ollery Hall Farm. So in January 1922, after their wedding, John, Celia and all three of her grown up children moved into Ollery Hall and didn’t leave for a very long time!

In 1924, another happy event: William Richard married Margaret Marshall 🌳(nee Waring), a widow from Birkdale, at St. John’s church. Notwithstanding this however, the couple moved into the farm with the rest of the family; in fact the family grew in size.

A year later, their first son Trevor 🌳 was born on 11th July and then William (Bill)🌳 on 2nd November 1929. Both boys enjoyed nature and were members of the Ormskirk Advertiser’s ‘Young Readers’ Circle’. They attended St. Cuthbert’s School; the photograph below shows young Trevor (kneeling, second from right).

The boys’ grandmother, Celia passed away in 1938; she was buried in the graveyard of St. Cuthbert’s church with her first husband, William. Her children and grandchildren continued to live at Ollery Hall Farm with John Dickinson and at the outbreak of WW2 we can see the family together in the 1939 Register for England and Wales:

Trevor, at 14 years old, was assisting his father on the farm whilst William was only 10 years old and still at school. Their aunt Ellen and uncle Walter were both listed as farm workers as well as another employee named John Fitzmaurice who ‘lived in’ – in the paddy shant, no doubt.

During the war, the story goes that one day a bomb was dropped in the field opposite Ollery Hall Farm, breaking many of the windows in the farmhouse. This was not an attack; if a bomber couldn’t find its target in Liverpool, they would have to lose the weight of the bombs so they still had enough fuel in the tank to return to where they came from. Therefore they would sometimes drop bombs in sparsely populated areas such as the Moss, rather than the city or nearby towns.

Having lived through and survived WW2, tragedy struck the Cunnington family three times shortly after the end of the war. Firstly, on 19th October 1945 Ellen Abigail Cunnington died suddenly at Ollery Hall Farm – a blood clot on her brain was the cause of her untimely death aged 53 years. She was buried with her parents, William and Celia in the family grave at St. Cuthbert’s church, Halsall.

Then only a year later, John Dickinson, the man who was responsible for bringing the Cunnington family to Ollery Hall, passed away in November 1946. From the probate records we can see that John left his estate to his step-sons William and Walter. His effects totalled £1568 0s 7d – the equivalent of £58, 507 today (according to the Bank of England inflation calculator). John was also buried at St. Cuthbert’s church, but in a separate grave to his wife Celia.

William Richard Cunnington

William Richard Cunnington, by then aged 51, became the head of the household with his brother Walter and sons Trevor (21) and Bill (17) also living and working on the farm; whilst Margaret, now the only female in the family, was responsible for the household duties. The years passed by and life on the farm continued uneventfully.

However, the most tragic misfortune befell William Richard in the summer of 1952. Whilst going about his day to day duties, he found himself with a splinter in his finger. Being a typical farmer, he just got on with his day; unfortunately, the wound created by the splinter became infected, so much so that he needed to go to hospital. Sadly, he contracted tetanus which affected his airways and therefore his respiratory system. He died on Saturday 7th June, a mere 56 years old. Deputy Coroner A.V. Cunliffe held an inquest on the following Wednesday, 11th June, the verdict being recorded as ‘death by misadventure’.

The heartbroken family placed the following announcements in the local newspaper:

After such a sudden bereavement, life would never be the same again for Margaret, Trevor and Bill. Somehow, alongside Walter, they found the strength to carry on with the farm and eventually a spark of happiness entered their lives once more.

Trevor Cunnington

Trevor, the oldest son, met Sheila Walsh 🌳 . Sheila, originally from Blackburn, Lancashire, had been a land girl and Trevor was introduced to her when she was working on the Harrison’s farm – Holt Farm on Carr Moss Lane – just down the road from Ollery Hall, in fact. Trevor and Sheila were married in 1957 (registered in Blackburn). They continued to live at Ollery Hall Farm, Trevor having been born there 32 years previously.

Although Hampshire is known as the ‘watercress growing capital’, Sheila is remembered for growing ‘Halsall watercress’ which she sold to many of the top hotels and restaurants in Liverpool.

This was and still is an interesting process, best described in the following link History of Watercress

Trevor and Sheila were blessed with two children in 1959 and 1961.

However, Margaret, Trevor’s mother, passed away on 12th June 1961.

Three years later, their third child was born in 1964

Trevor’s uncle, Walter Thomas, moved to Scarisbrick in the intervening years – he lived at 45 St. Mary’s Terrace, which is now known as The Almshouses, built by the Marquis of Casteja of Scarisbrick Hall in 1884. Exactly 100 years later, Walter Thomas died on 1st April 1984 and was buried at St. Cuthbert’s, Halsall.

Trevor’s brother, Bill, passed away on 7th July 2003; he was buried with John Dickinson, their step-grandfather, in St. Cuthbert’s churchyard, Halsall.

Trevor and Sheila Cunnington had a long and happy marriage (almost 60 years) until Sheila died in November 2016 followed by Trevor’s death in 2018 at the grand age of 93 years old. They are buried together in the Cunnington family grave in Halsall.

Even to this day, Trevor and Sheila are both thought of fondly by local neighbours and residents. Trevor is remembered for driving his Morris Minor motor car, collecting the ‘pools’ money and for simply being ‘a real gent’. He was the last of the Cunningtons to farm at Ollery Hall Farm, having lived there his entire life.

Sadly, the farming tenancy was not taken up by anybody else and the Church Commissioners sold yet another farm to a private buyer. Halsall Moss will never again be the farming hub it once was, but at least Ollery Hall Farm still stands and is in safe hands for years to come …

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