History of Brierley Hall

The early history of Brierley Hall and Lindley House is hard to trace. Architectural evidence indicates that the buildings are likely to have a mid eighteenth century Georgian date. The windows, and some interior features also suggest an early date.

There is a date stone set into the north west wall of Lindley House with the initials L E F and a date of 1730. The initials are those of Edmund & Frances Lindley, they lived in their new home in Brierley with their son George. Edmund died there just before 1739. On the 1655 Brierley Manor Court Roll a Mathew Lindley is named as living at Champney House Cawthorne.

Robert Hoyland brother of John Hoyland occupied Lindley House in the early 1800s. He enlarged and improved the house at that time which resulted in a mixture of building styles.

The 1655 Brierley Manor Court Roll mentions a John Hoyland of Brearley, one of a long line of Johns in the family. The surname could indicate that they came originally from one of the several villages in the area called Hoyland.


Brierley Hall	Lindley House

Brierley Hall fire 2nd February 2009	Lindley House date stone. Lindley Edmund Frances 1730

As late as 1662 the Lord of Brierley Manor Sir George Savile was the owner of most of the property in the village of Brierley which included Grimethorpe. The first privately owned property of any size was Grimethorpe Hall built by the Seaton family about 1669. George Savile was an absentee land lord so all his property in the village would be rented out. On a Manor rental for that year John Hoyland paid £5 rent for Speight farm in Brierley. There were only six people who paid a higher rent, less than £1 was the more usual amount. James Dymond paid a Freerent of 1s. and 8p. There were over fifty properties listed on the rental. <>
The six highest rentals were paid by Margaret Cawthorne £21.7.6d. most probably rent for the manor house which overlooks Grimethorpe from its isolated hill top site. William Speight paid £7rent for the (water) Mill in Grimethorpe, Henry Shirtliffe the younger £16.4s. for a property in New Park, Richard? Stead the younger and William Thorpe paid £13.10s. each for properties in New Park, which seems to have included most of the village of Grimethorpe.

On a 1701 Brierley rental the four highest rentals paid were, John Cawthorne £42 (for the Manor House?) John Hoyland £40, William Cawthorne for Ann £25.10s. and John Marshall £24.13s for property in Grimethorpe. Was John Hoyland’s high rent for an enlargement of Speight farm into a mansion? Most other properties in the village had a rent of under £5 some much less. The well established Dymond family are not listed on this and later rentals so must have owned their own property by this time.

Then in the 1720 Brierley rental John Cawthorne paid £43.13.4d. John Hoyland paid £38, William Cawthorne £25 and William Medley paid £24.13s. for properties in Brierley. Most other rents were well under £10. These rents were paid twice in the year.

In his will dated 20th. May 1731 this same John Hoyland refers to his own property in Brierley as a Dwelling House with Gardens and an Orchard, this is the first mention of the building now known as Brierley Hall. John Hoyland could have rented a large house on the site of Brierley Hall then bought the property before his 1731 will, and rebuilt it in the Georgian style at that time.

1841 census has John Hoyland (1793 - 1872)aged 45 of independent means at the large house in Brierley that was to become known as Brierley Hall. Living with him were his Mary his wife 45 (1791-1870), and his son John 9, this son John then went on to be a student at Oxford. In 1860 he was inducted as Vicar of Felkirk , and became Rev. John Hoyland of Felkirk , he retired as vicar of Felkirk in 1874 to live at Brierley Hall. .

On the 1841 census Robert Hoyland is described as being a solicitor aged 44, with his wife Elizabeth aged 39. Robert Hoyland’s daughter Sarah married Godfrey Pigot Cordeux of Barnsley who became the curate of Brierley. His father was a Barnsley linen manufacturer. The family continued to live at Lindley house following the death of Robert. and the corner on which the house stands became known as Cordeux Corner.

Rev. John Hoyland (1832-1910) and his wife Mary Anne, Nee Cordeux (1833-1915)had three daughters Mary Alice (1865-1953), Clara Ellen (1867-?), & Fanny Isabel (1871-1952). They attended a boarding school in London and were still unmarried and living at home in 1901. His two sons were Clement Edward (1870-1951) and John Henry born 1872. John Henry Hoyland is not mentioned again after the 1881 census, he was at home with the family at Brierley Hall that year.

Clement Edward Hoyland was educated at a boarding school near Doncaster and became a mining engineer, and lived at Shatton Hall near Cockermouth. In 1903 he deposited some legal papers relating to the Hoyland family with Hart Jackson & Sons Solicitors of Ulverstone in their Barrow office. The same year he built a house at Brierley Gap*, but sold out and left Brierley in 1911 following his fathers death. At the time of the 1911 census Clement was staying at the Grange Hotel Grange Over Sands Lancashire with his wife Louise Eddie. Louise (1866-1958) was born in Forres near Inverness, they were married in 1895. Clement and Louise were living at Stock Park Mansion on the west bank of Windermere near Newby Bridge by August 1911. This remained their home for many years. From 1914 to 1928 Clement Edward Hoyland was the owner of Brinkworth Hall, Elvington, York. *A Gap is a crossing point on a watershed. In this case it is between the rivers Don and Calder valleys. Clement died at Meadfoot Windermere U. D. 22nd. February 1951.

Stock Park Mansion

Rev. John Hoyland died in 1910, his widow Mary and daughter MaryAlice went to live in a house overlooking the Stray in Harrogate. Fanny Isabel also moved to live in Harrogate. Clare Ellen had married Rev. William Wordsworth Hoyland born 1860, the son of a wealthy Monk Bretton Farmer, in 1911 they were living in the vicarage at Wilcot, Pewsey, Wiltshire.

Brierley Hall passed to Alphonse Wood in 1911. He was born in 1880 in Barnsley. He was the son of Alphonse Wood a Cut Glass Manufacturer who was born 1843 of British parents in Baccaval, Meurthe, France, close to the town of Metz.

Then in 1916 the Hodroyd Coal Company became the owners. Captain Roland Addy became the managing director of the Hodroyd Coal Company, and lived with his family at Brierley Hall. He purchased the Hall from the coal company to avoid losing it in the coming 1948 nationalisation of the coal industry. He had extended Brierley Hall, by having the north west wing built, this was in the same stone as the older Georgian style section. Roland Addy was the son of James Jenkins Addy a colliery manager form Ecclesall Shefield. He was born in 1893 at Hodroyd Hall Felkirk but the family soon moved on to Osbourne House Monk Bretton. Osbourne House is a Georgian House standing in its own tree enclosed grounds close to the Sun Inn.

The hall was sold by Roland Addy to Hemsworth Rural District Council in August 1948, and is now standing empty awaiting refurbishment.

Miss Edith Cordeux daughter of Godfrey Pigot Cordeux lived at Lindley house until her death in April 1926. Henry Herbert Taylor Burbury J. P. a retired linen manufacturer from Crigglestone was the next occupant. He was there at the time of the 1936 edition of Kelly’s West Riding Directory. Dr. Ross Gardener and his family lived there until 1960. Mrs. D. M. Beaumont Schofield a well known Conservative candidate for Brierley Town Council was at Lindley House until her quite recent death.