In July 1874 this ‘valuable freehold property’ was offered for sale (SHI 1874 SMI). The auction was to be held in the George Hotel, Bradford. At the time of the sale in was occupied by ‘Mr Sichel.’ This was E E Sichel who had purchased the property from Thomas Aked, by whom I believe it was built.

The sale received mention in the Bradford Observer, so we know that Wood & Killick were the solicitors involved. Interestingly at that time the estate did not reach its reserve price and was withdrawn from sale at £8500 (somewhat in excess of £500,000 in modern terms).

In modern terms the estate was located at the junction of Bradford Road and Otley Road. The Coach & Horses Inn in the bottom left corner was later called ‘The Branch’ but has now been demolished.

This detail shows the extent of the property more clearly. Gracious living in the later nineteenth century was no exaggeration. As well as dining and drawing rooms there was a library and a butler’s pantry. There was also a ‘boudoir’, possibly a ladies’ retiring room. On the first floor there were four bedrooms, bathroom and WC; on the second floor there were four additional bedrooms. Below the house were extensive cellars.

Outside the house itself were kitchen gardens, stables, coach house, green houses and vineries. Slightly more surprising possibly were the piggeries, hen houses and mistals. These were however, kept ‘at a proper distance’.

I am indebted to Kieran Wilkinson for additional information concerning Shipley Grange. It had been built in 1841 to the designs of William Andrews (of Andrews and Delaunay, later Andrews and Pepper). After Thomas Aked departed, it was occupied by a “Mr Maltby” and then subsequently by Sichel (who was still there in 1876, a couple of years after the unsuccessful auction).

In the 1880s and 1890s it was occupied by C. R. Pullan (who was the son of Henry Pullan, the music hall founder and also being manager of the Princes Theatre). In the early 1900s, it was occupied by Charles Brook Shaw, who had been involved in the Midland Dyeworks at Shipley. Shaw died in 1914. He was chairman of the Shipley Local Board and District Council. The Shipley Times described his as one of Shipley’s “most esteemed citizens”. During the Great War, it was used to house Belgian refugees.

It appears to have been demolished in the mid-1920s (having been bought for redevelopment in 1923, albeit it had also been bought for potential use as a printworks earlier in the 1920s). Some of the carved stone gate posts to the estate remain in situ, on Bradford Road, and on Bargrange Avenue.