1853 Heritage
Known locally as ‘Mrs. Prickett’s Shop’
Before it was a holiday cottage, Ellis Howe was the heart of Torver: the village shop and post office until 1979. This is its story, pieced together from an article in the local magazine and from village memories.
Origins
A house, not quite a cottage
We do not know exactly when Ellis Howe was built, but a church warden is recorded living here in 1853.
Architecturally it is a ‘double-pile’ small house rather than a cottage, a style in use from 1770 to 1850. The word ‘cottage’ probably points to its first purpose: accommodation for someone such as a schoolteacher or tradesman, unlike the yeoman farmers in the older farm settlements.
In 1861 it was occupied by Margaret Mawson, the schoolteacher.
1881
The village shop and post office
By 1881 the house was described as a shop and post office, with Mary Coulthard as proprietor. The main living room was then two separate rooms. One front room had a wooden counter and shelves; the other held sacks of flour and sugar. In later years sweets and toys were sold from there.
The back of the living room had built-in cupboards, chairs and a table, the living space for the whole family. The stairs, now at the back of the living room, were originally in the kitchen, rising almost vertically against the wall. Cooking was done on a fire or a paraffin stove, and the ceiling hooks were used to store pots and pans.
Water
The pump in the garden
Water came from the pump that can still be found in the garden. It was fed from Torver Common into a large stone cistern under the pump. Sadly the leather pump valve has rotted, so the pump no longer works. Apparently overzealous use of the pump once caused water to flood into the cottage.
The family
A family of shopkeepers
Mary Coulthard was unmarried but had a daughter, Ann Penny Coulthard, who later married George Shuttleworth. Their daughter, Agnes Evelyn Shuttleworth, was born in 1875 and lived at Ellis Howe with her grandmother, working in the shop.
Agnes Evelyn married Richard Wilson Prickett. They had two children, Bessie Agnes (born 1895) and John, known as Jack (born 1896), who were brought up at Ellis Howe. Agnes Evelyn died in 1903 at the age of 28, when Bessie was eight and Jack was seven.
When Bessie was old enough, she took charge of the shop, while her father Richard and her brother Jack worked as carters until the start of the First World War.
Before the war
Carting stone
Richard and Jack carted stone from the local quarries to the railway sidings at Torver. For the run from Broughton Moor to Torver they used one horse and cart, plus a sledge to come down Broughton Moor hill; the sledge acted as the anchor weight. The pay was 2/6d (half a crown) a day.
1914 to 1918
The dusty mirror
When the First World War was declared in 1914, Jack joined the army. After he returned in 1918 he met Rachel Elizabeth Atkinson, who was lodging with Tom and Ganny Coward at Dalton Road Crossings, Torver.
Rachel had worked in service at Eccle Riggs, in Broughton, until she was dismissed. Her employers had written in the dust on the mirror above the fireplace: “This mirror is dusty.” Rachel replied on the mirror: “I know.” In those days that was a sackable offence.
1979
Mrs. Prickett’s shop
When Jack and Rachel married, Rachel took over the running of the shop, leaving Bessie free to pursue her career as a confinement nurse and housekeeper to expectant mothers. Jack was by then working for the County Council as Torver’s lengthsman, keeping the roadsides tidy between Town End and Little Arrow, and from there to Sunny Bank.
Rachel ran the shop at Ellis Howe for over fifty years, until it closed in 1979. The cottage is still known in the village as “Mrs. Prickett’s shop”.
Jack and Rachel had two children, Richard and Mary. Richard Prickett lived at Hollace, the property just above Ellis Howe, and was Mary Coulthard’s great-great-grandson. Mary married Tony Young from Souterstead, and their children John and Barbara, with her husband Sam, still farm in the village today.
1990 to 2001
Renovation and the dining room
Ellis Howe was sold in 1990 and the new owners carried out an extensive renovation. The dining room extension was designed and built in 2001, shortly before the current owners bought the cottage.
Today that oak-floored dining room frames Coniston Old Man and Dow Crag, while the slate-flagged floors, oak beams and wooden window shutters of the original house remain.
With thanks
This history follows an article by Pat Barr in the local magazine Nobbut Torver, edited by David Rogers. Additional information came from Sue Charlesworth, whose great-grandfather’s half-sister was Mary Coulthard, and from neighbour Richard Prickett, who was born at Ellis Howe.