Historic house kept secrets until the end
THIS week’s history piece takes us on a trip to a strange old house with many secrets.
Brownhill House dates from 1633 and records show Robert Holt owned it and the site on which it was built.
The house, next to Cronkeyshaw Common and Falinge Park, was tenanted by the Hamer family and later passed into the hands of the Holme family. On his deathbed, Edmund Holme said he wanted to be buried in the grounds.
He believed his sons would not sell the house if his body was interred there – although records show he had disinherited them both at one point.
His wishes were carried out and his eldest son was also buried there in 1786.
Later, he and his father were reburied at the parish church.
After that James Royds of Falinge bought the property in 1794.
Brownhill remained in the Royds family until 1922 when it was bought by the Rochdale Corporation for the purpose of an ‘open-air school’ which opened in 1925.
So how about the secrets?
Legend has it there was a secret panel in the oakpanelled armoury which went down to an underground tunnel which led into the town centre.
This was apparently uncovered when the house was demolished in the early 1960s.
Another interesting feature of the house was its bizarre construction – none of its walls were set at right-angles to each other so none of its rooms were square.
In addition, every floor had a step in it so each room had a different floor height.
There was a sale of items from the house in 1926 which included a Royal Worcester dinner service and a whole cellar of wine.
»●For more pictures of old Rochdale please visit the Touchstones archive at www.link4life.org.