In 1280, Adam of Whithill lived in a house on the land where Northowram Hall was subsequently built. Property on the site was mentioned in 1296 and was first known as Whithill.
In 1314, John de Whithill, son of Adam de Whithill de N'Ouram, inherited the land and house known as Whithill.
Around 1350, Robert Hare is recorded here. In 1398, he settled the property on Henry de Rastrick, who conveyed it to Robert's son, John Hare in 1405.
Richard Northend is mentioned here around 1447. The Hall passed down the family.
In 1612, the Hall passed to Richard Whitley on his marriage to Sarah Northend.
The property came into the possession of William Thorp.
In 1690, Joseph Crowther bought the property from Thorp.
In 1691, Joseph demolished Whithill, replacing it with a new mansion nearby, which took two years to complete. Heywood describes it as
the Stately Hall by Ouram Green
After Joseph's death, the property passed to his wife, Susanna. She left it to her executor, Joseph Wood, then he left it to his 14-year-old son, William.
William is recorded at the property between 1730 and 1735.
In 1741, Richard Richardson sold the property to John Edwards.
The Edwards family lived here for the next 100 years. On John's death in 1793, the house – again referred to as Whithill – passed to his son John.
On his death in 1819, the house was referred to as Northowram Hall.
Anne Lister was a visitor to the Hall in the 1820s.
Having never married, John left all his real estate, which included the Hall, to his nieces, Nanny and Maria. About 1840, William Moore, husband of Harriet, sister of Nanny and Maria Dyson, purchased the Hall from the sisters.
The Hall then passed to his son, William James Moore.
Around 1863, the Hall was bought by Abraham Briggs Foster. He demolished the Hall and completely rebuilt it on the same site [1865].
Around 1882, Foster moved to Staffordshire and the Hall was occupied by his nephew, Edward Hornby Foster.
It was remodelled and extended again in 1895.
It was virtually unoccupied from 1910 to 1924.
In 1924, it was bought by J. W. Drake.
On 17th December 1925, it was destroyed by fire, leaving only the walls standing.
Drake had the Hall rebuilt as before and
fitted up in most luxurious style
In 1931, there was a proposal to build a hospital to replace the Borough Fever Hospital at Stoney Royd. An isolation hospital opened at Northowram in 1934.
From the early 1950s, it was used for tuberculosis patients.
A new purpose-built 256-bed geriatric hospital opened on 12th March 1971. A day unit was added later. A psychiatric unit was added in 1973 and extended in 1982 and again in 1988.
By 1990, the Health Authority decided that they had too many buildings. The Nurses' Home was sold and converted into 16 private flats. The wards were closed in the 1990s.
In 2001, the hospital closed when it merged with the new Calderdale Royal Hospital. Houses have been built on the site – 17 units of which are in the Old Hall – by Persimmon Homes and Charles Church.
The 18th-century bath house – originally in the basement of the house and now beneath the road there – is listed
Writing in 1932, W. B. Trigg quotes from Sotheby's Catalogue for a Prayer Book of 1783 which appeared at a sale in March 1902 and was
[inscribed] Joseph Edwards, DL, JP, [and his wife] Sarah ... [and with] a beautifully painted view of Northowram Hall on the fore-edge by Edwards of Halifax
and Trigg comments that
this fore-edge painting seems to be the only traceable picture of old Northowram Hall, and unfortunately the present owner of this exquisite example of local book-binding is not known
See Northowram Hospital and Northowram Isolation Hospital
This & associated entries use material contributed by Carole Edwards Caruso, David Nortcliffe & Wendy Parker
Page Ref: MMN70
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