HILLSIDE (continued)

Owners and Occupiers

Mrs Joan Worthington (née Atkinson) who was born at this house tells us that it was an 18th century farmhouse, but who built it we do not know (yet).

c.1802-1829
Hugh Bullen (1777-1829) brewer, of Liverpool, came to 1829 live in Woolton with his wife Jane (née Tarleton) and from the record of the baptism of his daughter Henrietta at St Bennet's Priory on 4 December 1802 we can date his coming. There was a large family, 9 children survived, but when Hugh Bullen died in 1829 his estate was broken up and the house sold.

c.1834-c.1845
George Yates, born c.1796 is shown on Bennison's map of 1835, and on the 1840 Tithe Map and Schedule he is recorded as owner and occupier of the house and gardens etc., extending to 1a. 2r. 36p; about 25 acres of the "Acrefield" (to the boundary of the Hollies); 5 acres of the Outlane Meadow and the 5 Outlane Cottages.

The 1841 census suggests that he was 45, had a wife Eliza of 35, Mary Yates - his mother ? - of 75 "independent", with 1 manservant and 2 female servants. He described himself as merchant and ship broker, and in the 1832 Directory had been living at 56 Hanover Street, he remained at Hillside until at least 1843.

c.1848
Thomas Wilson, born c.1807, seems to have come to the house about 1848 and the 1851 census describes him as a widower and shipbuilder; with 6 children under the age of 11. Living with him was his widowed sister Charlotte Middleton of 28, an annuitant, 2 nieces called Wilson of 8 and 7, and 3 female servants - non local.

1854-1864
William Durning (c.1813-14.6.1881) cotton broker (George Holt & Co. India Buildings) came here about 1854 with his wife Elizabeth aged 43 in 1861 and born in Huyton, and a teenage daughter with 3 female servants. William Durning was born in Edge Hill (Durning Road is named after the family) and moved on to Beechwood (Archbishops House) in 1864, where he died in 1881 leaving a widow Margaret and £20,564.

continued . . .