Grand Estate to Family Homes: Unlocking the History of Hollins Park

If you have ever walked or driven along Scalegill Road in Moor Row, past the War Memorial, you might have noticed the old access gates nearby. They stand as a slightly mysterious remnant of the past, seeming to guard nothing more than a modern housing estate.

Local history is often a layered puzzle. It is easy to look at a modern street and forget that something entirely different existed there only a few decades ago.

Mystery of the Gates 

There is a common local suspicion that old gates in West Cumbria inevitably led to a pit head. Given the area's rich mining heritage, this is usually a solid bet.

However, in the case of the gates adjacent to the Moor Row War Memorial near the junction with Church Street, their purpose was far grander.

These gates were not the entrance to a mine shaft, but the formal entrance driveway to "The Hollins", a substantial and grand residence that once dominated the land where Hollins Park now sits.

During the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Moor Row was a hub of industrial activity. "The Hollins" was the seat of power for one of the area's most prominent dynasties: the Postlethwaite family.

The Postlethwaites were major players in the West Cumbrian iron ore boom. They were the proprietors of several surrounding mines, including the extensive Montreal Mines complex that practically bordered their estate, and Moor Row Pit No. 1.

While the gates didn't lead to the pit itself, they led to the home built by the wealth those pits generated.

The family’s influence is still visible today. The land on which the Moor Row and Scalegill War Memorial stands was explicitly gifted to the community in 1921 by Mary Postlethwaite of "The Hollins."

Mary Postlethwaite (the widow of Thomas Postlethwaite) was a central figure in Moor Row’s social history. By the early 20th century, the Postlethwaites were the "village gentry." Their local reputation was built on philanthropy.

​The family’s connection to the War Memorial was deeply personal. A member of the extended family, Tom Bennett Postlethwaite, was a decorated naval officer who died at sea in 1917. 

When the village sought a place to honour its 16 fallen men, Mary Postlethwaite didn't just donate money; she carved out a piece of her own estate - the prestigious corner at the entrance to her driveway - to ensure the memorial was the most prominent landmark in the village.

The gates next to it were the threshold between the public village and their private, landscaped grounds.

From Farm to Housing 

Like many grand industrialist houses of that era, "The Hollins" eventually became too costly to run or fell out of family hands as the mining industry declined.

The house was eventually demolished. In its later years, prior to redevelopment, the land was largely associated with Hollins Farm, utilising the remaining agricultural grounds of the former estate.

By the early 1990s, the demand for modern village housing grew, and the large tract of land on Scalegill Road was earmarked for development.

When was Hollins Park Built? 

There is often a local perception that the Hollins Park estate was built in the 1980s. However, a look at property records and historical maps paints a different picture.

The transition from open land to the residential streets we see today occurred in the mid-1990s. HM Land Registry records show the very first sales of completed houses on the "Hollins Park" street took place in early 1995 (with several sales recorded in February, March, and April of that year).

This timeline indicates that the bulk of the construction work, roadways, and infrastructure was being laid down throughout 1994. It is definitively a mid-90s development, rather than an 80s one.

A Hidden History

Today, Hollins Park is a quiet residential area. But the next time you pass those old gates near the War Memorial, take a moment to picture what used to be there: a long driveway sweeping up to a grand house, the home of the iron masters who helped build Moor Row into the village it is today.

Moor Row - Entrance To The Hollins Illustration
Entrance To The Hollins Illustration
Location: Moor Row CA24, UK

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