Autumn 2023A short history of Hare Hill House: The Newall Family

Hare Hill House in Littleborough was originally the home of four generations of the Newall family from 1775 until the 1900s, a family which played a significant role in the development of Littleborough as a thriving and important Pennine Township for 14 generations, from 1453 to 1901.

It also served as the town hall for the now defunct Littleborough Urban District Council, offices for Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council until 2010 and is now used by the local community for a variety of causes.

The house’s grounds would later become Hare Hill Park, now a Green Flag park with several Grade II listed features.

The oldest part of the house is the back of the building, originally a two-storey weaver’s cottage which dates back to at least the early 1700s. The land and cottage were sold to the Newalls in 1774. The following year, a Lawrence Newall – son of Lawrence Newall of Town House – is shown in ‘Burke’s Landed Gentry’ as ‘Lawrence of Hare Hill’, suggesting that the house was in place. It would have been two-storeys with a frontage similar to that at Town House.

The house underwent a major overhaul in 1870 with the addition of a bay window, a mansard roof (allowing for six rooms to be added on the top floor) and a large conservatory and hot house to the side.

Third generation Newalls Henry and Maria had 11 children together (although there is evidence of a 12th); their eldest daughter, Sybil ‘Queenie’ Fenton Newall would go on to become a future Olympic champion archer, renowned golfer and croquet player.

Queenie is best known for winning the gold medal at the 1908 summer Olympics in London, a feat which made her the oldest female gold medal winner in any sport, having been 53 when she won.

She followed this by becoming national archery champion in 1911, 1912 and 1914.

Queenie still holds the record for being the oldest female gold medal winner at the Olympic Games and Great Britain did not win another women’s archery medal at the Olympics until 2004.

A blue heritage plaque in Queenie’s honour was installed at Hare Hill House and unveiled at a commemoration event marking her achievements in August 2016.

Queenie’s father Henry Newall had a lot of influence in Littleborough. He and his brother Lawrence owned the first gas works in the town, were involved in the wool industry, and Littleborough’s first fire station was built on Hare Hill Mill, which Henry owned.

The Newall family were major contributors to the building of the first Littleborough Chapel in 1471 and again when Holy Trinity Church was rebuilt in 1820.

Henry also formed the Protector Lamp and Lighting Company Ltd., a company which is still in business today and makes the miners’ lamps used in the Olympic torch.

He initially bought the patent for the ‘Davy lamp’ from William Edward Teale, set up the company in 1873 and put William in charge. One such lamp appeared on the BBC’s Repair Shop in January 2023. In his obituary Henry was reported to own, be a major shareholder or a director of around 50 companies.

In recent years the Newall Heritage Trail was created: an approximate two-mile walk exploring the influence the family had on the development of Littleborough.

In the next issue of Real Rochdale we will look at the history of Hare Hill House from 1901, and its future going forward.