Walton on the Hill House front view

Description:Photograph showing the front view of the house once known as Walton on the Hill in the village of Walton. The drive to the property was to the left out of the picture. The stable was to the left of the house and in line with it. In front of the coach house there was a courtyard with the coach house opposite. The house was demolished circa 1972. Village Gardens, Walton on the Hill now occupies the site of the house and gardens.

The village of Walton on the Hill was in the 19th century known simply as Walton as can be seen in the censuses from that period and the 1881 and 1901 maps of Walton. Both of these maps show a large residence on the northern boundary of the village with the name Walton on the Hill alongside. The house was purchased in 1905 from the Lichfield Estate by Lady Helen Salt. It is said that she had a signpost erected by the village school on the main road bearing the name of her house Walton on the Hill to direct visitors to it. Over the years people came to think that the signpost referred to the village and so it became known as Walton on the Hill. There could be some truth in this local hearsay. The Salt family first lived in Walton on the Hill prior to 1871. Thomas Salt, M.P., J.P. and Landowner is recorded as living there in the 1871 census with his wife Helen and two children born 1867 and 1871. The address for the place of birth for both children is Walton on the Hill in the village of Walton. The place of birth for all other children born in the village is Walton. In the 1881 and 1891 censuses the house was occupied by Thomas Benson Elley and family who had large leather and shoe businesses in Stafford. In the 1901 census the house was occupied by the Fairhurst family; Mrs Fairhurst was the daughter of the Ansell Brewery family. In the 1911 census Lady Salt had six domestic staff living in. In 1920 Lady Salt sold the house to Miss Ellen Jane Brace. Miss Brace died in 1932 and Mr Surtees Walker, a builder from Northampton, bought the house from her estate. He converted the house into seven flats and he and his family lived in the right hand section where the main living quarters of Lady Salt and Miss Brace had been. Mr Walker built a lot of houses in the village of Walton on the Hill including some houses on The Rise, all the houses on The Crescent and all the bungalows, except two, on the main Milford Road, Walton. Mr Surtees Walker died in 1967. The family which included Mr Walker's step children continued to live in the flat at the big house known then as 1 The Village. When Mrs Walker died in 1972 her daughter Mrs Joan Pickerin felt she could not manage such a large property and sold it. Eventually the house was demolished apart from the old stable and the old coach house opposite it and a small housing estate called Village Gardens built on the site. The old drive to the house forms part of the new road. The old stable had been converted into a dwelling and was occupied by Mrs Beulah Cook who continued to live there while the new houses were built round her. After she died in 1992 the old stable and the coach house were converted into one dwelling.

Research Jim Foley.

References: Down by Jacob's Ladder by Laura Husselbee.

Joan Pickerin's story in Down Memory Lane, Memories of Brocton, Milford and Walton 1993.

The Story of Berkswich Retold, Berkswich History Society 2008, information from Tony and Sue Pickerin and the censuses.