Home of the Milligans'
The family on the front lawn BEFORE
the conservatory was added (see below)
| The contents of the Hall were sold in 1960 after the death of the last Miss Milligan
The catalogue covers the six days of the sale. |
Sale catalogue Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 |
| Thankyou to Hetty Jones for sight of the original catalogue. |
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'Caldwell Hall, Nr Burton-on-Trent Home of the Milligans' The family on the front lawn BEFORE |
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| A postcard of the hall addressed to 'Miss B. Milligan'
and inscribed 'I hope you will like the way I have coloured the Hall from memory, Yours truly E. A. Ashwall, 91 Alexandra Road, Edgebaston, Birm.' Dated June 26th 1905 | |
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'Caldwell Hall, South Front Home of the Milligans' |
| Caldwell Hall across the lake, 'April 1903' |  |
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'Mrs Milligan's garden. Early 1900's' |
| Captioned 'Boat house & Ice house Caldwell Hall. Early 1900's' Now demolished and no trace remains.It was in the near right hand corner of the lake as you approached it from the Hall. It housed a wooden punt, which was eventually sunk, and remained in the lake until it was drained and deepened by the Coal Board |
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| With many thanks to David Mellor, (ex Caldwell Lake water bailiff), for information about the boathouse and lake. |
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Hi Rick I am able to give you a little more detail about the lake and boathouse at Caldwell Hall as I remember it. During the latter part of the 1960’s a major detrimental event to the lake itself took place. The right hand bank was breeched by the lake due to the bank collapsing suddenly to below the level of the lake. Most of the water in the lake drained over this breech and with the water went many of the Wild Carp fish. It was a very sorry sight. Some fish were rescued and put into the other small pool that used to be on the left as you enter the lake until they could be returned to the main lake. At this time the Bass angling club were leasing the lake and took action to find the cause of the damage. The cause was eventually traced to an abandoned coal mine running directly under the lake which had subsided suddenly taking the bank with it. The smaller of the two islands also disappeared. Bass brewery, on behalf of the Bass angling club, took the Coal Board to court over this incident and won the case. Accordingly the outcome was that the Coal board had to reinstate the lake to its former glory and the angling club rebuilt the existing smaller island over a number of weeks.There is a Forsythia tree on this island which my (at the time) 5 year old son planted as a small stick! |
In or around 1970 work began by the coal board contractors to deepen the lake and to reinstate the right hand bank.
They also installed a concrete overflow at the far end of the right hand bank at this time, as no overflow had previously existed.
The water was then able to overflow into the small natural brook below the bank when required.
They deepened the lake down to the bedrock and as a result it was many years before anything like weed or lily plants would grow again. I first started fishing this lake at Caldwell when the Milligan sisters were still alive. I camped in the field next to the lake as a boy scout and two of us asked permission to fish and it was granted on the basis the we looked after the grounds and did no damage. At this time there was a Bailiff working for the Milligan family. I recall his name was Harold Pair (not sure of the spelling of his surname). Harold and I became good friends and we met often on the side of the lake. He unfortunately died some time soon after but I remember him as a kindly country gentleman. I still fish the lake at Caldwell when I can, although I have nothing to do with it now due to my age. I have some very fond memories of the place and I sincerely hope that it is looked after by the current owners, Burton Mutual Angling Club, and I am sure they will do a good job. Hope some of this information helps you for your web site which I always enjoy reading Best Regards David Mellor (Ex Caldwell lake water Bailiff) |
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'The Library, Caldwell Hall' |
| The hydraulic ram used a large volume of water at low pressure to pump a
small volume of water at high pressure from the stream in the woods up to a storage tank in the hall
It was removed about 1985 and is now part of a large collection of hydraulic rams at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. It is a 3" simple ram, made in 1879 by John Blake of Accrington, Lancashire. |
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The Caldwell cricket team, outside Caldwell Hall. date unknown. I will try and identify the team members. Thank you to Mary Sharpe for permission to use the photograph. |