Hi, Guys:
Just stopping by to correct my earlier posting concerning Aymestry Court Inow the Redbourne Hotel) on Acrefield Road.
I’d mentioned that I seemed to recall hearing in my teens that it was built by the patriarch of the Lyle family (of the famous Tate & Lyle family) as a wedding gift to his daughter.
Well, I was wrong! It was actually built 1884 by Henry Tate (later Sir Henry), the Liverpool sugar magnate, as a gift to HIS daughter. He had a really big house directly across from Aymestry Court, on the opposite side of Acrefield Road. Was this ‘Highfield House’, and does it still stand? I remember seeing a huge house standing there beyond its sandstone walls when I was a teenager, but there’s no house there at all now on the Google satellite shot – just some newer houses and what looks like sweeping lawns.
Tate seems to have had some family connection with Aymestry, Herefordshire, which may explain the choice of name for the house (there are ‘Tates’ to this day in that Herts locale)
His local (Gateacre/Woolton) connection makes his personal history pretty interesting as a ‘local man made millionaire’! This is from his entry on Wikipedia:
“Henry Tate was born in Chorley, Lancashire, the son of a clergyman. When he was 13, he became a grocer's apprentice in Liverpool. After a seven-year apprenticeship, he was able to set up his own shop. His business was successful, and grew to a chain of six stores by the time he was 35.
In 1859 Tate became a partner in John Wright & Co. sugar refinery, and he sold his grocery business in 1861. By 1869, he had gained complete control of the company, and renamed it to Henry Tate & Sons. In 1872, he purchased the Langen patent on a method of making sugar cubes, and in the same year built a new refinery in Liverpool (my note: the Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery, Love Lane, Liverpool. closed in January, 1981).
Tate rapidly became a millionaire, and donated generously to charity. In 1889 he donated his collection of 65 contemporary paintings to the government, on the condition that they be displayed in a suitable gallery, toward the construction of which he also donated £80,000. The National Gallery of British Art, better known as the Tate Gallery, was opened on July 21, 1897, on the site of the old Millbank Prison. Henry Tate was a modest rather retiring man, well known for his concern with workers’ conditions. He refused a knighthood more than once until - after he had spent over £100,000 to build the Millbank Gallery, endowed it with his personal collection, and presented it to the nation - he was told the Royal Family would be offended if he refused again.
Tate made many donations, often anonymously, and always discreetly. They included £42,500 for Liverpool University, £3500 for Bedford College for Women, and £5000 for building a free library in Streatham; additional provisions were made for libraries in Balham, South Lambeth, and Brixton. There was £10,000 for the library of Manchester College, Oxford, and, also to Manchester College, £5000 to promote the ‘theory and art of preaching’. In addition he gave £20,000 to the (homoeopathic) Hahnemann Hospital in Liverpool in 1885, £8000 to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and £5000 to the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute, which became the Queen's Institute for District Nurses. In 1887 he gave £5000 to the Tate Institute in Silvertown.
Tate was made a baronet in 1898, the year before his death.“
- from ‘Henry Tate', Wikipedia -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_TateAccording to other web references, In 1878, Henry Tate bought a derelict shipyard site in London and built his Thames Refinery there. Henry Tate and Abram Lyle probably never met, despite operating refineries less than two miles apart in East London. It was their descendents who later formed the Tate & Lyle partnership
All of that clarifies these interesting local and London census etc. records on the Tate family:
TATE Alfred - (age 35) (Acrefield Rd, Much Woolton) Liverpool 1881 1881 census RG11 /3721 /53
TATE Alfred Herbert (estate) (£342k) - Surrey 1930 The Times
TATE Caleb A - (age 30) (Highfield House, Much Woolton) Liverpool 1881 1881 census RG11 /3721 /61
TATE George (start-up crew) (manager) Henry Tate & Sons Silvertown London 1881 Ronald Crawford - research
TATE George - (bankruptcy) Coslany St Norwich 1888-9 London Gazette
TATE George B of Chorley (age 24) (Highfield House, Much Woolton) Liverpool 1881 1881 census RG11 /3721 /61
TATE H - H. Tate & Sons Silvertown Refinery London 1878 Hutcheson
TATE Henry - - Embankment London <1885 AGFHS RG5
TATE Henry - Tate, Henry & Wright, John Manesty Lane Liverpool 1859-1869 Fairrie,1
TATE Henry - Tate, Henry & Sons Love Lane Liverpool 1869-1921 Fairrie,1
TATE Henry - Henry Tate & Sons 12 Love Lane Liverpool 1872 Gore's Directory, 1872
TATE Henry - Tate, Henry & Sons Thames Refinery London 1878-1921 Fairrie,1
TATE Henry - Henry Tate & Sons Earle St Liverpool 1860 Hutcheson
TATE Henry - - - London 1877 Martineau & Eastick
TATE Henry of Oxton (age 62) (Highfield House, Much Woolton) Liverpool 1881 1881 census RG11 /3721 /61
- from
72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:vyhe7LciwQoJ:home.clara.net/mawer/sugartt.html+henry+tate+acrefield+road&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=caHow many other Liverpool neighbourhoods can boast of a charitable agribusiness magnate who founded an internationally-known business AND the Tate Gallery?
Move over Beatles-lovers – make room for the coming flood of Henry Tate tourists from around the world. They’d better get to work on expanding the Redbourne Hotel quickly!
All the best, and 'bye for now,
Johnkw