"Hawthorn" is a very common name element in the centre of Wilmslow with at least half a dozen streets and numerous houses and businesses including it in its name. The origin of this naming practice dates back to Hawthorn Hall and its estate, which seems to have been in existence since the late Middle Ages.
In the late 18th century the Hawthorn estate consisted of 44 Cheshire acres (which seems to have been a bit of a moveable feast in terms of size), much of which was held in tenancy by a number of local farmers, including Samuel Roylance, Thomas Clarke and William Lawton with most of the land lying around the old Hawthorne Hall. Today this hall still exists and is now back in use as a private residence after a long and varied history of a school and later as offices. It lies now in the middle of the Pownall part of Wilmslow, but by the early 19th century, it was considered to be part of Morley, a term used to describe the entire Western part of the town from Kennersley's Lane to the parish boundaries to the West and to Knoll's Green in the South. For the most part, the area consisted of the moor and heathland of the Lindow Common with a few well-established farms around modern-day Morley and Pownall Hall - and of course Hawthorn Hall.
In addition to the main hall and the farm land, Hawthorn Hall had its own private chapel as part of St. Bartholomew's, documenting the pre-reformation origins of the Hall and its importance to the parish life. Unlike the main nave, it was private property and could (and was) sold and rented out at the will of the owners of the Hawthorn estate, who had the right to be buried in perpetuity inside the chapel and later inside the nave, when the majority of parishioners saw their remains moved from temporary graves in the outside cemetery to a communal ossuary after 20 years (this practice only changed with the extension of the cemetery in the 1860s).
By the late 1700s the estate had long since passed out of the original ownership of the younger branches of the Booths of Dunham Massey (and via the Lathom family) into the hands of the Leighs, some of which served as Sheriffs of the County of Cheshire. In the 1770s the Hall was owned by Thomas Leigh Page and his wife Susan, two of whose children were born in the Hall (and christened in St.Bartholomew's) in 1772 and 1774. However, by 1799 the family decided to move to Devon, where Thomas Leigh Page's will was proved in 1810.
The estate and all its furniture and equipment were put up for sale from the 28th May onwards and the sale advertised in the Cheshire Courant, the Chester Chronicle and the Manchester Mercury.
The Pages clearly decided to make a fresh start in Devon and the sales notice most of the house inventory, including a mahogany dining set, four-poster and "tent" beds (we would call them canopy beds) and dressing glasses (large dressing mirrors) as well as several draft horses and 'brewing equipment' (Chester Chronicle 31/5/1799).
Despite this far-reaching advertising, no buyer could be found for the Hall on the first sales day on August 26th and the sale (which took place in the Swan Inn (now Anthology) in Swan Street) had to be rescheduled for the 23rd of September 1799 (Manchester Mercury 3 September 1799), when Ralph Bower decided to buy the entire estate.
This slow sale of a large house is by no means unusual during the Napoleonic era. It is thought that the period 1795-1820 saw the biggest upheaval in land ownership until the 1920s. The British economy was very much under stress, with the Continental Blockade cutting Britain off from some of its export markets and also to a lesser extent from its possessions and trade partners in the Caribbean and elsewhere. On the other hand, the blockade also stopped the import of a lot of Italian, but especially French luxury goods and opened large business opportunities for businessmen willing to run high risks. With these large changes, it is hardly surprising, to see that large estates unable to adapt might run into financial difficulties or decide to restructure, while a lot of the entrepreneurs especially in the North of England were able to take advantage of offers and invest heavily in land, and the opportunity it offered in providing amongst others beef to the British forces for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars.
By 1799, the Bower family had already invested heavily in a diverse portfolio of businesses, from cotton spinning and weaving to ownership of mills (including for grain) and different farms as well as investment into Turnpike Trusts. We don't know, what attracted Ralph Bower specifically to buy the Hawthorn Estate, but it is possible, that beyond the economic opportunities he saw the chance to obtain a prestigious seat for the family and the chance to document for the rest of Wilmslow that the Bowers had arrived.
Bibliography:
T.Cadell and W.Davies (1810), The county Palatinate of Chester. Vol. 2,2.
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