Playing in Barrells

From Sheila Tomlin (now Rose)

The Lewis girls (Diana and Sandra) would play in the cellar which was to the left of the tower. They used to sit down there with a candle. There were red squirrels at Barrells.

Up the big marble staircase there was a big picture of a lady.

We picked up a parasol once. It was cream silk with black lace and it had a silver top.

Maurice Tomlin climbed up the tower once and caught a jackdaw.

Joyce Knight (now Hall) used to live in the gardeners cottage in the stable yard at Barrells.

There were cellars under the house. We used to go down there to play. Joyce, Doug and Pam (all brothers and sisters Knight) went down one day and Pam saw a reflection of herself one day in a mirror! She was so frightened she wouldn’t go down again. There were three tunnels. There was a big room down there. It is rumoured there was a tunnel to the ice house. This was by the “Fairy Dell”. The nearby lane led to a walled garden and also to Grimshaw Hall.

In the strongroom it had a very thick door. It had an oil painting in it of a woman and a little girl.

People used to come and picnic on the lawn. Doug and I used to hide up the tower and take a chair, rattle it and frighten people away!

Joyce’s family moved down to Barrells 1945-46.

Inside Barrells there were double doors leading to the marble staircase. There was a huge mirror on the wall in this room, the ballroom. Some of us used to wear our mothers dresses and ‘dance’ in front of the mirror. It was to the left of the staircase. By the stairs was a grand piano.

10/2018