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Article based on Angus Dunphy's 'The Ellowes' by kind permission. Photos by kind permission of Trevor Genge/ Sutton Publishing. Thanks also to Ian Beach.	More than a month ago we promised in our Coach Road article that we would shortly be publishing a piece about the history of Ellowes Hall. We are sorry it has taken so long! The prime reference source for our work was 'The Ellowes' by celebrated local historian, ex-Ellowes teacher, and recent OBE recipient Angus Dunphy, and it has taken us several weeks to track Angus down to his home in Wales to obtain his permission. In the mean-time we published a selection of Yampy readers' Ellowes Memories, and we thank all of our contributors for their most interesting submissions In 1812 a plan was drawn up by James Sherriff which marked the site of Ellowes Hall as 'Ellors, Feredays Cottage'. Writing five years later, Pitt, the Staffordshire historian, wrote that the Ellors was a pleasing specimen in ornamental gardening, and many delicious fruit trees were cultivated there in profusion. At this stage Ellowes Hall had not been built. The small cottage on the site together with the ornamental gardens were the property of Samuel Fereday, who also owned colliery and ironwork properties all over the Black Country. However, Sam became bankrupt in 1817, and his nephew John Turton Fereday acquired the assets that remained. John Fereday married Anne Cecilia Hemming in 1812 and they decided to employ an architect to transform The Ellowes into a suitable residence for them. The architect was Thomas Lee Junior, whose first important commission had been to erect the national pillar near Wellington in Somerset to commemorate Wellington's victories over the French. In 1821 Lee began work at The Ellowes, building virtually a new home. The Feredays moved in between 1821 - 1824. By 1846 The Ellowes was described as being 'a very handsome and commodious mansion house'. By the 1830's John Turton Fereday was having financial problems of his own, and after his wife died in 1832 he moved out of Ellowes Hall. However, it stayed in the Fereday family until it was sold in 1850 to William Baldwin. The Baldwin brothers ran the Bovereux Ironworks in Bilston. William was well-loved by the people of Bilston and Sedgley; in his will he left £8,000 for a church to be built (St. Martin's in Bradley). William died in 1854 and his brother John took over Ellowes and lived there until 1860/1, when he moved to a smaller residence and rented out the Ellowes to Major William Barrows. Major Barrows was also a member of an iron trade family and William and his sons were the proprietors of the Bloomfield Factory and Tipton Iron Works. He resided at The Ellowes until some time after 1864. Charles Cochrane who was Mayor of Dudley in 1865 took over The Ellowes and was in residence there by the year 1867. An indication of his importance at the time an be gauged from the following story. On the 30th October 1867 a letter from Charles was read out at the Upper Sedgley Local Board meeting, complaining about the dangers of the road at night between the Upper Gornal gate of the turnpike road (the main Sedgley to Dudley road) and the entrance to his carriage drive (the coach road at Moden Hill). Mr. Cochrane's point was that street lighting should be provided on the approach to his gates. Embarassed officials explained that the question of lighting for the whole district had not yet been looked at, but said that as soon as it was his request would be considered! It is not known exactly when Charles left The Ellowes, but by 1872 Sir Horace St. Paul was in residence there. He married in 1867 at the age of 55 and it is thought that he bought The Ellowes, as a family residence. He took a great interest in the Black Country community and he was known to be a very kind man who loved children and animals. In the industrial slump in the late 1870's, the nailers of Gornal were hit extremely hard so Horace distributed 100 loaves of bread to the area's poorest inhabitants - this became a weekly occurrence. In 1879, a group of people including Horace St. Paul, proposed to set up a soup kitchen, and 100 gallons of soup was made twice a week. This was distributed, together with 200 loaves of bread, to the poor from the Jolly Crispin Inn. and the Green Dragon. Horace's wife died in 1881, and on Horace's death in May 1891 he left one daughter, Maria. In 1891/92 The Ellowes was sold to James Lloyd Gibbons. James Gibbons was elected as County Councillor for North Bilston in the same year as he took up residence at Ellowes. He was well-respected in his capacity as County Magistrate in the Sedgley Petty Sessions Division, and was described as being a kind, generous and most charitable man. He died on 25th April, 1919 and was buried at All Saints Church, Sedgley. His widow sold The Ellowes to a family man, Charles Thomas Mitchell in 1919. Charles and his wife Rachel and their children lived happily at The Ellowes for four years. It was during this time that a film was made or some scenes shot at The Ellowes. The name of this film is not known, but one of the fetes held in the grounds of The Ellowes was used for the crowd scenes. Nothing is known of the whereabouts of this film, can Yampy readers help? Charles Mitchell's business deteriorated and he left The Ellowes in 1923. It was acquired ny Henry Arthur Nock who owned it until he died in November, 1946. When the Second World War broke out The Ellowes was used as a Home Guard batallion headquarters and was staffed by Orderly Officer Major Robert Alwyn Williams. He lived on the top floor of the house with his wife and daughter. They inhabited two bedrooms at the front and a kitchen and sitting room at the back. During the dark days of the War life was difficult, although some amusement was found at the batallion sports, which were held in the grounds of the hall. Reports at the time said that the grass was tussocky and many people fell over! Daphne Williams (daughter of Major Williams) attended Dudley College and was training to be a teacher. She was on teaching practice at Upper Gornal Board School. During this time some of the Nocks were still in residence in parts of the house, and the grounds around the house were still described as very beautiful, although somewhat neglected. In 1963, 51 acres of land were bought from the Nock family by Staffordshire Education Authority. This land today is taken up by Ellowes Hall School. The Nock family sold the rest of the land, including the house itself, to Five Oaks Estate for housing development. The Hall was actually pulled down between August - December, 1964. A fire at The Ellowes around this time was thought to have been started by vandals. According to Angus Dunphy's book (1983) the two stone lions that once guarded The Ellowes can be seen guarding the Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club at Heathbrook. Unfortunately, when Yampy went along to take a photograph recently we were informed that these last pieces of the old Hall have been stolen. There has been much folklore connected with The Ellowes, as with many old buildings; stories of ghosts walking the corridors in the science block of Ellowes Hall School at night, and secret passages leading to Dudley Castle. These tales keep the romantic notion of The Ellowes alive through the generations. 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