Above: Gerald thought these two ladies were maids from Errwood Hall.
This photo of two young ladies posing in a car outside Errwood Hall has always intrigued me. Were they a couple of servants from the hall? Or perhaps friends of the Grimshawe family? With their large black bonnets, they appear to be dressed in mourning.
The photo was one of many that Gerald Hancock, author of Goyt Valley Romance, let me scan when I first launched this website, almost 10 years ago. He captioned the photo ‘Two maids enjoying their moment at the Hall’.
I’m not sure of the date, but I’d guess around 1910. Peter from the GV Facebook group said: “I think the car is a Lorraine Dietrich – circa 1905-ish. Quite an expensive car for the time. In the early 1900s the company hired a young Ettore Bugatti, who went on to produce his own vehicles.”
Bridge mystery
One mystery I’ve never been able to solve is the path shown at the top of the map below which leads from the hall to the other side of the valley.
It’s a fairly steep drop into the valley below. And there’s no sign of the path today – or of any bridge. If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment below, or use the contact page to get in touch.
