Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2020)
 |
| copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove Henry Earp, senior, painted this delightful picture of Portslade in 1840. On the hill to the left is the impressive mansion called Portslade House the home of the Hall family, on the hill to the right, is St Nicolas Church. |
Nathaniel Hall
The Christian name Nathaniel appeared in six
generations of the Hall family. The first Nathaniel Hall was born in
1684 and died in 1747, and just to make matters more confusing three
generations of Nathaniel Halls were married to ladies called
Elizabeth. The ‘Portslade’ Nathaniel was born in 1755 and the
family had Southwick connections – his parents having a memorial
tablet inside the Church of St Michael and All Angels. In 1786 it was
stated that Nathaniel Hall of Southwick held the post of Gamekeeper
of Atlingworth Manor, and the Lord of the Manor was Thomas Phillips
Lamb who was also Lord of Portslade Manor.
In 1795 Nathaniel Hall purchased the Portslade House estate, and the following year he appeared in person before a
Court Baron. He stated that he held freely of the Lord of the Manor
of Portslade copyhold land and hereditaments lately alienated by John
Wimble and John Hargreaves who had married Ann and Elizabeth, the two
daughters and co-heirs of Mr Hammond, late of Lewes. Hall was also
granted a parcel of land now covered with water, being a pond
commonly called the Road Pond in Portslade, adjacent to land he
already owned.
 |
copyright © J.Middleton
The Georgian Portslade House was a beautiful mansion on the west side of Portslade Old Village.
|
On 10 September 1805 the following men signed
articles of partnership to establish Lewes Bank – the firm to be
known as Wood, Hall, Flint and Godlee:
Nathaniel Hall of Portslade
John Wood of Southover
Samuel Flint of Kingstone
John Godlee of Lewes
The men provided £400 of capital each.
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums. Brighton Herald 1 September 1827 Messrs. Hall, West, & Borrer were the most popular Bank for deposits from charities in Brighton |
One of Hall’s customers was Richard Lashmar, a
Brighton coal merchant, who was declared bankrupt in 1826. Hall then
took charge of the land Lashmar owned in Hove, with the other
creditors, until the debt was paid off in 1829. It was on this land
that Osborne Villas was built.
In the same year Nathaniel Hall was also involved
in another banking venture – this time at Brighton and he became a
partner in the Union Bank that opened in North Street in 1805. The
other partners in the Union Bank were:
William Golding
James Browne
Richard Lashmar
Thomas West
The first customer of the Union Bank was Daniel
Constable, a draper, of 3 North Street, Brighton. By the 1850s the
bank was known as Hall, West, Borrer, and Hall. In 1896 it acquired a
name familiar to this day – that is Barclays Bank, which is still
a presence in North Street.
Nathaniel Hall also ran a wine merchant’s
business in conjunction with John Rice.
In October 1806 William Scutt appointed Nathaniel
Hall with power of attorney to try and sort out his affairs in
Portslade while he was stationed at Carlisle as a lieutenant in the
Sussex Militia. The trouble arose when his father died and his
property was claimed by Scutt’s grand-daughter who was also
William’s niece. But Scutt lost out on what he perceived to be his
inheritance. This was because the Manor of Portslade still followed
the pre-Norman custom of Borough English whereby property was
inherited by the youngest son or daughter, rather than the Norman
custom of primogeniture where property usually went to the eldest
son.
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums. Brighton Herald 4 November 1837 |
By 1815 it appears that Nathaniel Hall was living
in Henfield; in that year he sold the following land to William
Borrer:
Dumbrells
Half a farthingale in Aldrington
A tenement called Priors
Four acres
Nathaniel Hall and his wife Elizabeth had six
children, and it was his second son John who continued to live in
Portslade House.
Nathaniel Hall’s sister Susanna married John
Bridger Norton of Shoreham, a customs officer, who was robbed and
killed in 1795.
The third Nathaniel Hall’s son Nathaniel was
born in 1787 and died in 1848. His sister Elizabeth married William
Borrer (1781-1863) the noted botanist, and his sister Ann married
John Hamblin Borrer who was also a partner in the Union Bank.
In an article in
the Sussex Archaeological
Collections (Volume
26) about Southwick Roman Villa, Nathaniel’s grandson, N. F. L.
Hall, was mentioned. Apparently, archaeologists had approached Mr
Hall, as owner of the site, requesting permission to excavate there.
However, Hall refused stating the site was excavated in 1844 during
his grandfather’s lifetime, and all they found was some plastered
walls, which rapidly disintegrated upon exposure to air, and an urn
that ‘a clumsy workman shivered in atoms’.
John Hall
He was the second son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth
Hall. John Hall continued to live in Portslade House and he followed
the profession of surgeon. He and his wife Sarah had no less than
thirteen children. When John Hall died in 1840, he was buried in the
family vault of St Michael and All Angels, Southwick; his widow died
in 1842. There is a brass tablet commemorating the couple, which
includes their coat-of-arms, described thus – argent (silver) a
chevron engrailed between three talbots’ heads (a white hound with
large ears) and on a chief azure (blue) three mullets (five-pointed
stars) or (gold).
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove Many generations of the Hall Family are buried inside and outside St Michael & All Angels, Southwick, West Sussex |
John Hall was a considerable landowner in Portslade, and was so wealthy that he was obliged to pay the vicar of Portslade £31-5s a year. According to the Tithe Map of 1839 Hall owned the following pieces of land, the numbers being plot numbers marked on the map:
76 – Mud and shingle
100 – Portslade House
101 – field by mansion
102 – home field, pasture
103 – home field, arable
105 – Eight Piece Plantation
107 – Locksdale
108 – Smokey House Piece, arable
109 – Smokey House Piece, arable
110 – Smokey House Piece and barn
111 – Three Cornered Piece
112 – Mill Field, arable
113 – Mill Field, market garden
114 – Brick Kiln Field
115 – Cottage and garden
116 – Red House Piece, arable
119 – Chalkfield
120 – Cow Hayes, arable
121 – Upper Cow Hayes, arable
122 – Mill Field, arable
123 – Pound Field, pasture
124, 125, 126 – all gardens
127 – Garden and cottage
128, 129 – arable
130 – Mill Slip, arable
131 – East Cow Hayes
132, 133 – Hangleton Bottom, arable
134 – North Cowdown, arable
135 – Part of Middle Cowdown, arable
136 – Eight Acres, arable
137 – Six Acres, arable
138 – The Copyhold, arable
140 – North Field and three acres, arable
141 – Park Piece
142 – Butcher’s Piece
143 – Barn Meadow, meadow
144 – Bailiff’s house and garden
146 – Pasture Field, pasture
147 – Garden
John Hall was said to occupy all these pieces with
the exception of numbers 113, 146 and 147, which were worked by, and
in the occupation of, William Huggett. Altogether, Hall’s land
holdings came to 272 acres. It seems this was not enough for him
because he was also noted as occupying 27 acres belonging to
Elizabeth Bridger, 17 poles belonging to Frank Peters, and (with
others) 400 acres belonging to John Borrer and others.
In a
vault on the north side of this chancel is laid in Hope All that is
mortal of John Hall of Portslade House, Sussex, J.P. died December
29, 1840. aged 79. Also of Sarah his wife born Feb. 26, 1770 died
Jan. 31 1842.
 |
| copyright © D.Sharp The Hall Family vault on the north side of St Michael All Angels, Southwick, West Sussex. John Hall (1760-1840) of Portslade House, his wife Sarah and thirteen of their children are buried in the family vault on the north side of the Church. The upright marble cross is the grave of Eardley N. Hall (1803-1887), the last surviving child of John and Sarah. |
And of their children
John Clayton, Dec. 3 1788 - Apr. 4 1822
Robert Gream, Oct. 17 1790 - July 27 1841
Sarah Elizabeth, Mar. 1 1792 - Apr. 23 1868
George, Nov. 1 1793 - Sep. 10 1854
Jemima, May 23 1795 - Oct. 18 1823
William Brown, Jan. 5 1797 - Jan. 14 1885
Caroline, Aug. 21 1798 - Apr. 4 1876
Maria Anne, Feb. 7 1800 - June 10 1877
Louisa, Aug. 18 1801 - Jan. 9 1854
Frederick, Ap. 12 1804 - Jan. 14 1805
Isabella, Feb. 4 1806 - Oct. 20 1880
Francis Newnham, Sep. 4 1807 - Nov. 7 1821
(Eardley Nicholas 1803-1887, the last surviving child of John & Sarah has a grave marked by an upright marble cross over the family vault)
Dr George Hall
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove The Brighton Herald 7 February 1835 Dr George Hall ran a medical practice at 14, Old Steyne, Brighton as well as serving as the chairman of the Sussex County Hospital |
In 1841 Dr George Hall (son of John Hall) of Portslade House donated a
site in Portslade Old Village on which the parochial school was
erected – this was the forerunner of St Nicolas School. The
building did duty for over 30 years, and then in 1872 a new school
was built in Locks Hill, which was paid for by wealthy Hannah
Brackenbury, who was later to be buried at the Brackenbury Chapel, St Nicolas Church. This school building is still in existence and today
forms part of Brackenbury School. When the new school was built, the
vicar of Portslade, Revd G. F. Holbrooke, considered the old building
to be redundant, and therefore looked forward to the revenue from the
sale that could be used to fund the running of the school.
But the situation proved to be more complex; this was because the Hall family raised strong objections to the sale, saying that the late George Hall had only lent the site of the school, and it had never been conveyed to the school authorities. The dispute dragged on and by 1875 the case had reached the Court of Queen’s Bench. Even the eminent Justices, Mellor, Lush and Quain, found the matter complicated, and remained unconvinced by the evidence produced by Hall’s counsel. Finally, the Justices decreed that the two parties must sort out the matter themselves, or, if that proved to be impossible, to give the court the power to make the decision.
But the situation proved to be more complex; this was because the Hall family raised strong objections to the sale, saying that the late George Hall had only lent the site of the school, and it had never been conveyed to the school authorities. The dispute dragged on and by 1875 the case had reached the Court of Queen’s Bench. Even the eminent Justices, Mellor, Lush and Quain, found the matter complicated, and remained unconvinced by the evidence produced by Hall’s counsel. Finally, the Justices decreed that the two parties must sort out the matter themselves, or, if that proved to be impossible, to give the court the power to make the decision.
 |
| copyright © National Portrait Gallery, London
Mary Isabella (née Tibbits), Viscountess Hood
by Richard James Lane, after Edmund Havelllithograph, (1855) |
Mary Blanche Hall was born in 1851, the daughter of
Dr George Hall and the Dowager Viscountess Hood
of Whitley (Mary Isabella Tibbits) who were married in 1849. Sadly
Mary’s father George died 3 years after her birth in 1854 and was buried
in the Hall family vault at St Michael & All Angels Southwick, West
Sussex.
Mary Isabella Tibbits, an heiress in her own right, was first married to Samuel Hood, 3rd Viscount Hood of Whitley in 1837. Their marriage produced six children of whom their eldest son, Francis, assumed the title of 4th Viscount Hood of Whitley at his father Samuel’s death in 1846.
In 1858 Mary Blanche’s mother Lady Mary Isabella Hood-Tibbits’s third marriage was to Capt John Borlase Maunsell, the Lord of the Manor of Rothwell. Mary Blanche Hall spent her childhood at Barton Seagrave Hall which was the country estate of her mother's family.
Both the Viscount Samuel Hood-Tibbits and Capt John Borlase Maunsell-Tibbits took the Tibbits surname by Royal Licence, probably Dr. George Hall did not live long enough to go through this legal process to assume the Tibbits surname himself.
In 1871 Mary Blanche Hall married Edward Spencer Watson of Rockingham Castle, son of the Hon. Richard Watson M.P., (the son of Baron Sondes) and Lavinia Jane Quin (the daughter of Lord George Quin). Richard and Lavinia Watson were close friends of Charles Dickens. His visits to Rockingham Castle were his inspiration for Chesney Wold in his novel Bleak House.
Mary Blanche Hall and Edward Spencer Watson’s marriage produced eleven children:- Henry George Watson b.1873, Christabel Sarah Lavinia Watson b.1874, Grace Mary Watson b. c 1875, Margaret Isabella Watson b. 1877, Meriel Georgiana Watson b.1880, Frederica Katherine b.1881, Annie Caroline b.1883, Evelyn Horatia Watson b.1884, Selena Charlotte Watson b.1885, Cicely Eleanor Watson b.1887 and Gwendolen Olivia Watson b.1888. Sadly a year after her last child was born her husband Edward Spencer Watson died at the age of 46.
Mary Blanche Watson did not remarry and brought her eleven children up by herself albeit with the help of her nine servants and governess at her country estate of Cransley Hall in Northamptonshire.
In the early 1900s Mary spent four years living at Yarmouth before she moved to Portslade House in 1904 with four of her daughters, which would have been facilitated by her cousin John Eardley Hall with whom she had been in contact throughout her life.
Mary Isabella Tibbits, an heiress in her own right, was first married to Samuel Hood, 3rd Viscount Hood of Whitley in 1837. Their marriage produced six children of whom their eldest son, Francis, assumed the title of 4th Viscount Hood of Whitley at his father Samuel’s death in 1846.
In 1858 Mary Blanche’s mother Lady Mary Isabella Hood-Tibbits’s third marriage was to Capt John Borlase Maunsell, the Lord of the Manor of Rothwell. Mary Blanche Hall spent her childhood at Barton Seagrave Hall which was the country estate of her mother's family.
Both the Viscount Samuel Hood-Tibbits and Capt John Borlase Maunsell-Tibbits took the Tibbits surname by Royal Licence, probably Dr. George Hall did not live long enough to go through this legal process to assume the Tibbits surname himself.
In 1871 Mary Blanche Hall married Edward Spencer Watson of Rockingham Castle, son of the Hon. Richard Watson M.P., (the son of Baron Sondes) and Lavinia Jane Quin (the daughter of Lord George Quin). Richard and Lavinia Watson were close friends of Charles Dickens. His visits to Rockingham Castle were his inspiration for Chesney Wold in his novel Bleak House.
Mary Blanche Hall and Edward Spencer Watson’s marriage produced eleven children:- Henry George Watson b.1873, Christabel Sarah Lavinia Watson b.1874, Grace Mary Watson b. c 1875, Margaret Isabella Watson b. 1877, Meriel Georgiana Watson b.1880, Frederica Katherine b.1881, Annie Caroline b.1883, Evelyn Horatia Watson b.1884, Selena Charlotte Watson b.1885, Cicely Eleanor Watson b.1887 and Gwendolen Olivia Watson b.1888. Sadly a year after her last child was born her husband Edward Spencer Watson died at the age of 46.
Mary Blanche Watson did not remarry and brought her eleven children up by herself albeit with the help of her nine servants and governess at her country estate of Cransley Hall in Northamptonshire.
In the early 1900s Mary spent four years living at Yarmouth before she moved to Portslade House in 1904 with four of her daughters, which would have been facilitated by her cousin John Eardley Hall with whom she had been in contact throughout her life.
 |
| A copy of the inscription to Mary Blanche in St Leonards Church, next to Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire. |
In Portslade the four
daughters, Selina, Meriel, Evelyn and Margaret were keen workers on
behalf of St Nicolas Church, teaching children at Sunday School and
hosting a church fete in the grounds of Portslade House in the summer.
The Watsons also provided a Christmas tree to delight the children of St Nicolas School with a gift for each child and a present for some parents too.
Mary Blanche Hall-Watson died in 1910 aged 60. Her body was taken to Watson Family Mausoleum at St Leonard’s Church next to Rockingham Castle. Mary has an ornate marble wall memorial close to her husband’s memorial.
The four Watson sisters from Portslade House, Margaret, Meriel, Evelyn and Selina, now joined by two more of their sisters, Frederica and Gwendolen, are recorded in the 1911 census as living in a large house in Hove with six servants to look after them.
Although the Watson sisters had left Portslade House by 1912, they still
maintained their Portslade connections, Margaret and Frederica Watson
served as vice-presidents of the Portslade and District Allotments Association along with the Revd V.A. Boyle and Mr Walter Mews.
Eardley Nicholas Hall
 |
| copyright © J.Middleton Eardley Nicholas Hall lived at 1, Adelaide Crescent, situated nearest to the sea coast. |
Eardley Nicholas Hall was the third son of Nathaniel Hall, and was a wine merchant and a banker. On 8 October 1835 at Henfield he married Ann Borrer who also happened to be his second cousin and niece of John Borrer. There were six children of the marriage, including the following:
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove A report in the Brighton Herald 9 January 1841, following the death of John Hall his brother, Eardley Nicholas Hall would replace him at the Brighthelmston Bank |
Annette born 24 June 1836
Jessie born 13 April 1840
John Eardley born 1842
Emmeline Elizabeth born 7 April 1844
Edith Jemima born 4 June 1846
On 9 August 1833 E. N. Hall leased 1 Adelaide Crescent from Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. Previously the house had been leased to George Over for 97 years, and Hall purchased the residue for £1,950. On 22 September 1833 Hall rented the house for fourteen years at £220 a year to the Hon. Fulke Greville of Castle Hall, Pembroke. On 21 August 1849 Hall leased the house for the same rent to Dame Eliza Twysden for twenty-one years. However, on 17 December 1858 Hall sold the lease to John Barnett, brewer, for £2,300.
The 1851 census records E. N. Hall and his wife
and children living at Portslade House, together with five servants
and a ‘monthly nurse’.
Ann’s
father, William Borrer, died in 1862, leaving her his property in
Henfield called Barrow Hill, where he had lived with his wife
Elizabeth (née
Hall). Afterwards, the Halls divided their time between Portslade House and Barrow Hill.
Revd William Hall
He
was the brother of Eardley Nicholas Hall, and was the vicar of Saxham
Parva, Suffolk, from the 1850s to the 1880s.
A week later the Rector of Southwick wrote to the newspaper to correct an error in the above article. He stated that he had not made a protest nor had he seen Mr. Verral until after the consecration. He went on to criticise the arrangements, stating that “the patronage is vested in the Bishop of Chichester, subject to the approval of the Vicar of Portslade”. He did not know what recent concession had been made between the Bishop and the Vicar of Portslade, but this was certainly not the agreement when the idea of a church was conceived. In his final statement he added that “had faith been kept with the Bishop, and truth respected, there would have been, at this moment, a worthy clergyman in residence at Copperas Gap, the church would have been consecrated and the district assigned, much unpleasant feeling avoided and the whole affair saved from its present scandal”.
Revd William Hall wrote his
will on 14 January 1885 while living at 67 Regency Square, Brighton.
He left his property in Portslade, which included Portslade Grange,
to his nephew John Eardley Hall, but if he died without issue, the
property was to go to Harry Watson, son of his niece Mary Blanche
Watson (the daughter of George
Hall) and her husband Edward Spencer Watson, or to successive eldest
sons when they attained the age of twenty-one. There was also a stipulation
in the will that if Watson inherited the property, he must change his
surname to Hall within six months.
In 1863 the Revd William Hall donated land in Church Road for the
site of a new church in Copperas Gap. This new District Church of St
Andrew’s would meet the needs of the small population of Copperas Gap and Fishersgate. There seems to have been an assumption that as
the Hall Family of Southwick had donated the land, this newly created
Church District of Copperas Gap would be assigned to the Parish of Southwick, which turned out not to be so. The
following is an account of the unpleasantness between the two
Parishes of Portslade and
Southwick:-
“A Scandal” – this is how the Revd Park, the
Rector of Southwick described the situation surrounding the
consecration of St Andrew's Church in October 1864.
An article in The Surrey Standard reported “A church at Copperas Gap, which has recently been erected to meet the spiritual wants of almost 100 souls in that neighbourhood, was on Tuesday last consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester, notwithstanding the difficulties which had produced a formal protest from a gentleman of the law, Mr H. Verral, acting on behalf of the Revd William Hall of Saxham Parva and the Rector of Southwick, who alleged that the districts of Portslade and Southwick should be assigned to the Church previous to its consecration. The Bishop, finding sufficient cause for non-compliance with the protest, proceeded to accomplish the consecration”.
An article in The Surrey Standard reported “A church at Copperas Gap, which has recently been erected to meet the spiritual wants of almost 100 souls in that neighbourhood, was on Tuesday last consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester, notwithstanding the difficulties which had produced a formal protest from a gentleman of the law, Mr H. Verral, acting on behalf of the Revd William Hall of Saxham Parva and the Rector of Southwick, who alleged that the districts of Portslade and Southwick should be assigned to the Church previous to its consecration. The Bishop, finding sufficient cause for non-compliance with the protest, proceeded to accomplish the consecration”.
A week later the Rector of Southwick wrote to the newspaper to correct an error in the above article. He stated that he had not made a protest nor had he seen Mr. Verral until after the consecration. He went on to criticise the arrangements, stating that “the patronage is vested in the Bishop of Chichester, subject to the approval of the Vicar of Portslade”. He did not know what recent concession had been made between the Bishop and the Vicar of Portslade, but this was certainly not the agreement when the idea of a church was conceived. In his final statement he added that “had faith been kept with the Bishop, and truth respected, there would have been, at this moment, a worthy clergyman in residence at Copperas Gap, the church would have been consecrated and the district assigned, much unpleasant feeling avoided and the whole affair saved from its present scandal”.
The Surrey Standard also reported
that the disagreement between the Vicar of Portslade and the Rector
of Southwick had reached new heights when the Rector of Southwick was
refused entry into the railway carriage which the Vicar of Portslade
was travelling in back from Chichester, after having a joint meeting
with the Bishop at his Palace. This article was repudiated by the
churchwarden of St Nicolas who said in his letter to the newspaper
that he and the Revd F.G. Holbrooke did not see the Rector of
Southwick on the platform at Chichester Railway Station.
 |
| copyright © G.Osborne St Andrew’s Church, Portslade was opened in 1864. |
In
the event, the name-changing never took place because J. E. Hall did
inherit the property. It is sad to note what became of prospective
inheritor Harry Watson. 2nd
Lieutenant Henry George Watson of the 4th
Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, was found dead with a skull
fracture after accidentally falling out of a window at the barracks
at Weedon on 14 June 1893.
William Hall
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove A report in the Brighton Herald 17 May 1873 |
William
Hall was a timber trader, and unlike many of his contemporaries he
did not use a timber pond in which to season his wood, but preferred
to store his timber on dry land on a site between his wharf and the
Schooner Inn. It
was in 1863 that permission was granted for this practice.
William Hall was one of the trustees of the will
of John Borrer, who lived in Portslade Manor, and died in 1866. Other
trustees were Eardley Nicholas Hall and Carey Hampton Borrer. Some of
the things the trustees had to oversee were an oyster bed, a culvert
at Portslade, and the towing path for horses on the banks of the
canal. The two latter were also partly owned by the Ingram family.
William Hall was also a trustee of Shoreham Harbour.
In
1867 a vestry meeting was called at Portslade concerning the removal
of the organ, and the placing of a screen between the nave and the
chancel. However, William Hall of Shoreham, described by the Brighton
Gazette as
the owner and trustee of the rectory, opposed these alterations.
Indeed he felt so strongly about the matter that he forced a poll of
ratepayers, which took place on 3 December 1857. Hall won the day
because 97 people supported his action while only 66 people voted in
favour of the alterations, which were subsequently abandoned.
 |
| copyright © J.Middleton The inscription on the St Nicolas School's west wall reads: These Schools were erected by Hannah Brakenbury for the benefit of the Poor of the united parishes of Portslade and Hangleton A.D. 1872. |
It
seems that William Hall was no stranger to controversy; in 1875 he
was involved in a rumpus concerning St Nicolas School. Some people
were of the opinion that the parish should relinquish control of the
school, and that the running of the school should be handed over to a
lay School Board. Frederick Sundius Smith moved the resolution in
favour of a School Board, which was seconded by William Hall. The
Brighton Gazette’s
reporter
was obviously used to the ways of William Hall, and wrote the
following about the meeting.
‘Some liveliness was imparted to the meeting by
the appearance of the stormy petrel Mr William Hall, but a fatality
of failure seems to attend him and he only succeeded in securing one
more defeat.’
 |
| copyright © J.Middleton The High Street Bridge in this picture postcard is not the original bridge the Halls built in the 1870s. In 1885 the original bridge burnt down; the fire was caused by sparks emanating from the funnel of a steam-roller lumbering slowly up the hill. |
John Eardley Hall (1842-1915)
 |
| copyright © D. Sharp A notice from the Brighton Herald 28 January 1871, A Union Bank Branch at 30b Western Road on the corner of Brunswick Place |
He was the third child of Eardley Nicholas Hall. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and became a partner in Hall, West, & Bevan, Union Bank, Brighton. Although he lived at Barrow Hill, Henfield, he continued to own some family land at Portslade, although it was not as much as his grandfather had owned – in 1873 it was stated that J. E. Hall owned 124 acres. In 1885 he inherited Portslade Grange and grounds from his uncle Revd William Hall.
 |
| copyright © G.Osborne This early 1900s photograph shows Portslade Grange in the High Street |
In April 1897 he offered to sell to Portslade Council 9 acres, 1 rood, and two perches for £2,350 – the site subsequently becoming Victoria Recreation Ground. In 1903 Hall donated land on the west side of Locks Hill where the new St Nicolas Infants’ School was built – this building has since been demolished and new-build houses called Freeman’s View now occupy the site. Hall had been a school manager of St Nicolas School since 1897.
 |
| copyright © G. Osborne The former St Nicolas' Infant School and Portslade Fire Station were built on land donated by John Eardley Hall |
 |
| copyright © Robert Jeeves It was no secret that re-building St Andrew’s School was an expensive business and the word ‘Donations’ on the notice board was in large letters. The man in the straw boater is the Revd R.M. Rosseter, vicar of St Andrew’s Church, Portslade. It is possible that one of the other gentlemen is John Eardley Hall, a major donor for the school's rebuilding fund. This photograph dates to around 1913. |
Hall was also connected with education in
Portslade-by-Sea because he was a foundation manager and on the
committee of the school building fund of St Andrew’s School,
Portslade.
In 1913 he donated £1000 towards the cost of the new school, to which he also gave a frontage of 40-ft – the land was said to be worth £200.
 |
| copyright ©
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove The Brighton Herald 2 May 1914 |
In 1913 he donated £1000 towards the cost of the new school, to which he also gave a frontage of 40-ft – the land was said to be worth £200.
It seems that Hall was equally generous to
Henfield, and in the 1930s there was still an Eardley Hall Club and
Institute there.
Hall was closely associated with Hove’s
financial affairs because in 1874 he was treasurer to the Hove
Commissioners, continuing in the post while the structure changed to
an Urban District, and finally to Hove Borough in 1898 - he did not
retire until 1903.
Hall
never married; he died on 2 October 1915 at the Crown
Hotel, Harrogate.
Revd Leycester Ward, vicar of St Andrew’s Church, Portslade, wrote
a letter of condolence to Hall’s sister, Mrs Annette Blackburne of
Barrow Hill, commiserating with her on the ‘loss of such a generous
and warm hearted friend as your brother was to this parish.’
Portslade Grange was then inherited by Hall’s
nephew, Frederick Eardley John Blackburne. (Annette Hall had married
Frederick John Blackburne at St Andrew’s Old Church, Hove, on 3
July 1856). On 4 August 1916 Blackburne assumed the additional
surname of Hall. But he died on 22 March 1919 and Portslade Grange
devolved upon the widow. When she died on 23 September 1930 the
property went to her two sisters who soon sold the site for
re-development.
Sources
 |
| copyright © G.Osborne Portslade Grange in the High Street opposite the George Inn |
Sources
Brighton Gazette
Brighton Herald
Brighton Herald
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Hill,
A. F. Barclays
Bank, North Street, Brighton (1988)
Middleton,
J. St Nicolas
School, Portslade (1990)
Middleton,
J. The Development
of Shoreham Harbour 1760-1880 (1984)
Mr R. Jeeves
Mr G. Osborne
Mr R. Jeeves
Mr G. Osborne
Private house deeds
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Sussex
Archaeological Collections (Volume
26)
The Keep
The Surrey Standard
The Surrey Standard
PAR387/21/1-2 Tithe Map 1839
Additional research on the Watson family and St Andrew's Church by D.Sharp
Thanks are due to Mr G. Osborne for allowing me to reproduce four of his wonderful photographs from his private collection
Copyright © J.Middleton 2020
page layout by D.Sharp
Additional research on the Watson family and St Andrew's Church by D.Sharp
Thanks are due to Mr G. Osborne for allowing me to reproduce four of his wonderful photographs from his private collection
Copyright © J.Middleton 2020
page layout by D.Sharp