Sunday 2 February 2014

Carter Place Hall that was!

This is a sketch I did of Carter Place Hall, which was a lovely building situated in Haslingden up until a fire in the later 1900s.  Sadly there is little evidence of the actual building today, only the fabulous "archway".  I did a lot of this sketch from memory and one photograph, eg. The gatehouse memories was that it was built into a very dark hillside and shadowed completely by mature decideous trees, and of particular note was the superhigh chimney stack that was built to cater for the considerable downdraught they will have experienced.
As a child I remember we used to go over from Hud Hey Road (where I lived) and crossed Tom Barnes fields and enter Carter Place Hall grounds, trying not to let the gardener see us, because if he did he would chase you. But he never actually did manage to catch us.  We went there to collect bird eggs and witness the large amount of baby rooks that would fall from the large Rookery above.  There were large greenhouses filled with flowers.  It was so exciting has a young lad growing up around here.  I did this particular sketch to accompany my Blog of Carter Place Hall which is on the Haslingden Old and New Site.