History
Ford House,
situated in the centre of the park, and is designated as a grade two listed
building. It was built between 1857-60, on the site of an earlier building
known as Hoad Cottage. Although this earlier building was called a cottage, it
must have been quite sizable as the owner had a large number of children, as
well as a maid and a servant. The old Coach House is the most probable site of
Hoad cottage.
Ford House was built for Montague
Ainslie who owned Grizedale Hall and the estate near Hawkshead. Ford House was originally built for his son,
William G. Ainslie who was Chairman and a major shareholder of the North
Lonsdale Iron and Steel Company in South
Ulvertson, which stood on the site which is now occupied by Glaxo. W.G. Ainslie became the first MP for Lonsdale
and moved to London in 1865. Ford House was then used as a town house by the Ainslie family.
In the 1870's it was let to a local solicitor,
John Poole, who later bought it. In the early part of the 20th century it was
owned by Richard Crosthwaite who was a local timber merchant, he occupied the
estate until the late 1920,s and then in the early thirties the whole estate
was passed to Ulverston Urban District Council.
There was anecdotal evidence that the
estate had been gifted to U.D.C. but as records have not been found we cannot say if that was true or not. In 1942 the Ministry of Defence took over the
estate to house the US army, and then
after the war it was passed back to U.D.C.
The house was then used as an annex for Ulverson
Victoria Lower School, which was administered by Lancashire County Council. In
1948 U.D.C. sold the whole estate to L.C.C. for use as a school.
The building suffered some very unsympathetic alterations shortly after this and nowadays it is difficult to say exactly how the interior used to look. We found an inventory in the local records office drawn up before the MOD took possession in 1942 which suggested that the house was crammed with paraphernalia, a lot like the TV series upstairs, downstairs.
Many of Ulverstons present generations were taught in the rooms and grounds of Ford Park which carried on as a school annex under Cumbria County Council until 1995. The adjacent school, Victoria lower school, closed in 1995 and Ford House and the Coach House were boarded up and the site fell into dereliction until it was rescued by the community group.
