Ford Park
Community Group

A History of Ford House
and The Ford Park estate

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Ford Park Community Group formed in 1999, the group was made
up of local councillors and volunteers who had come together to help the
refugees from Kosova who had been housed in Victoria Lower school and at
Ford House, both buildings were owned by Cumbria County Council.

When the refugees went home the group approached the Council and secured a lease with a view of turning it into a community centre. Prior to the Kosovans using Ford House it had been an annex of the school where pupils would learn agriculture, motor mechanics, art and science. When Lower school closed, Ford house was boarded up and left to go derelict, and had it not been reopened for the Kosovans it would have eventually been sold to a developer.
Luckily the group seized the opportunity to save the house
and grounds for Ulverston.
   Ford House was built between 1857-60, and was built on
the site of a building known as Hoad cottage. Although this
building was called a cottage it must have been quite sizable
as the owner had a number of children as well as a maid and
servant. The old coach house is the most probable site of the
cottage.

The person who had the house built was called Montague Ainslie
who owned Grizedale Hall and the estate near Hawkshead.

     

                                            W.G. Ainslie MP & JP 1832 - 1893

It 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. After this
Ford House was used as a town house by Anslie Montague.

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 a Richard Crossthwaite who was a timber merchant. He 
occupied the estate until the late 1920,s and some time
before the 2nd world war 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
can't say if that was true or not. What we do know is that
in 1942 the Ministry of Defence took over the estate to
house the US army and after the war it was passed back to
U.D.C. The house was then used as an annex for Ulverston
Victoria Lower school, which was run by Lancashire
County Council.
In 1948 U.D.C. sold the whole estate to
Lancashire.C.C. for use as a school. The building suffered some very
unsympathetic alterations shortly after this and nowadays
it's difficult to say exactly how the interior used to look.
Many of Ulverstons present generations were taught in the
rooms and grounds of Ford Park which carried on as a school
under Cumbria County Council until 1995. This is when the
 Lower School was closed and Ford Park lay sadly neglected.

 

           W.G.Anslie


 




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