Hurst Hall

Hurst Hall is an interesting one. What is marked as Hurst Hall on modern maps and even in the listed buildings register is not the building that is clearly marked as the hall on earlier maps. What is now known as Hall Farm (also listed) is Hurst Hall on those maps and the building next to it at the very top of Hurst is the appropriately named Hurst Head House.

Hurst-1854 (National Library of Scotland

There has probably been some rebuilding and alteration over the decades. Lintels inscribed with F M 1871 and F M 1879 refer to Francis Morley who was Lord of the Manor, owned the Hurst mines and either leased them out or worked them himself. The buildings are much earlier than these dates however, and they were presumably added when some renovations or additions were made.

Occupants of Hurst Hall that are in our tree are listed at the bottom of the page but note the following points.

I think Hurst House is the same as Hurst Hall. It's in the right place in the sequence of dwellings in the 1871 census which is the only document where the house is so named. Also in the 1871 census, there is no mention of Hurst Hall.

In the 1881 census Hurst Hall is not mentioned. It was very probably occupied by the recently widowed Jane Wallis and her family and/or James Hodgson and family. The address is not given specifically, but those two households are in between Shining Row and the Public House (Hurst Head Inn).

Again in 1991, no specific mention but the enumerator heads from Marrick Moor Farm to Thomas Hodgson's Inn at Hurst Head before visiting two households and then Shining Row. This year, Matthew Frankland and his sister Jane, and Thomas Frankland and family are the likely occupants.

In 1939 we still have Hurst Hall and Hurst Head listed but no Hall Farm yet. William Hillary and family are resident at Hurst Hall and have likely been farming there since 1921, although the lack of detailed addresses in the 1921 census make that a little bit speculative. Next door at Hurst Head, live the Graham family, James William Graham being a gamekeeper which is a job that seems to go with that house. Grahams also farmed at High Stelling.

After 1939 there is no census data available but there are electoral registers we can access. In 1945 we see the first mention of Hall Farm. The same Hillary family lived there - my assumption is that it is the same house as Hurst Hall. It seems likely. The same Graham family were also still in Hurst, this time living at The Lodge, Hurst. There is no mention of Hurst Head in the register so it looks like it was renamed to The Lodge. I know that during the war, there were rules that place names on signs and railway stations had to be removed so maybe the removal of 'Hurst' from these two building names was something to do with that.

The next year of note is 1958. The Graham families were still living at The Lodge and High Stelling, and the Hillary family at Hall Farm, although Robert Hillary had moved to Sunny Cottage. But lo and behold, Hust Hall is back in the register! and lived there. Both these men were from Arkengarthdale families but I've yet to find links with Hurst. I have a hunch, but without evidence, that one or both of them were gamekeepers. This would fit in well with their presence in this house and the pinching of the Hurst Hall name from the adjacent house: well, why not!

By 1963 there is no mention of The Lodge. The two men just mentioned lived at Hurst Hall and the Hillaries were still at Hall Farm. Only one Graham remained in Hurst and that was George at High Stelling. The Graham family had now left The Lodge (Hurst Head) and the two halves, old and new, of what started as Hurst Head House / Hurst Head Inn is now Hurst Hall.

It's a bit of a convoluted history but, while we look for more evidence, it's a starting point.

Hurst Hall residents

Here is a list of relations who have lived or stayed at Hurst Hall at some time or other.