Arkwright and the Hurts . It was lived in by Francis Hurt ’ s manager , Matthew Bacon for some years .
In 1848 the works were leased to John and Charles Mould , Forge House included and one of the brothers took up residence . The upwardly mobile Moulds re-named it Oak Hurst and lived in it until 1865 , when they became bankrupt , new technology by that time having made their haphazardly up-dated first generation ironworks obsolete .
For over twenty years the house reverted to being let , mainly to the Hurts , as a residence for their estate manager , and the works appear to have remained in the doldrums . In around 1880 , however , the Midland Railway purchased it ( or possibly did so slightly earlier ) and in that year extended it , giving it a sturdy Neo-Jacobean cloak . The architect was their “ in-house ” man , Charles Trubshaw , a talented member of a long established Staffordshire dynasty of builders and architects . His Railway Institute in Derby has outlasted his Station façade by 20 years .
It thereupon became the residence of Richard Bird , the superintendent engineer of the railway . However , on his leaving the post , it was in 1887 let ( and soon afterwards sold ) to John Thewlis Johnson , ( 1836-1896 ) a Mancunian who had already bought the old forge site from the Hurts and turned it into a wire works .
Johnson , grandson of John Johnson of Pendleton , was the ‘ nephew ’ in the well-known firm of Johnson & Nephew , started by his uncle Richard Johnson ( 1809-1881 ), and of which the Ambergate works was a subsidiary . He lived at Broughton House , Manchester , dominating the Manchester Chamber of Trade for many years and serving as its president in 1892 . He was also a director of Nettlefolds , the Birmingham foundry . His father Thomas Fildes Johnson of Pendleton had been a successful cotton spinner .
In 1888 Johnson completely rebuilt Oak Hurst and considerably extended it so that he could dwell cheek by jowl with his latest enterprise . A new full height canted entrance boasted a tablet above with his initials and the date . It is not clear who the architect was but John Douglas of Chester has been plausibly suggested , who also built Brocksford Hall near Doveridge at about this time for a fellow industrialist . The house had a thorough Arts-and-Crafts makeover , and the interior fitted up very sumptuously with panelling and all the latest contrivances , including electric light and modern central heating . Furthermore , it was lit by electricity throughout , then something of a novelty . He also landscaped the grounds .
By two wives – Aurelia and Anne Higgins , cousins to each other – he had five sons , of whom two lived in Derbyshire , the fourth , James , being at one time tenant of Foston Hall . The eldest , Herbert Alfred ( 1866-1923 ), who succeeded his father when he died aged only 59 in 1896 , had a glamorous American wife who could not stomach living cheek-by-jowl with a wire works , and they moved , taking a lease of Farnah Hall from Lord Curzon and later were the last private owners of Allestree Hall .
This began a decline for few others , apart from members of the Johnson family , could stomach living beside a noisy works , but Anne , J . T . Johnson ’ s widow , beefed it out until her death in 1923 . Thereafter it was used less frequently , its sheer opulence militating against its occupation by a mere works manager . In the end it was dedicated on 7th November 1924 by Bishop Hoskins as a Diocesan Retreat House – the diocese in question in those days and for three further years being that of Southwell . This move may have been encouraged by the fact that the 1894 rebuilding had provided the house with a rather fine domestic chapel .
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