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| Stonehouse Farm, Hayfield |
Stonehouse Farm on Edale Road in Hayfield, was in the
eighteenth century, the home of the Hall family. There are records of this
family in Hayfield from at least the 1600s.
Joseph, born on 14th December 1777, was their second son. He
would not inherit the property nor did
he have any interest in the family sheep farm. On reaching adulthood, he rented
a home in Birch Vale and found employment in the small coal pits then being
worked on Ollerset Moor. The building of the Peak Forest Canal and the Peak Forest
Tramway, saw the establishment at Bugsworth of a number of lime kilns. Here was
a ready market for the locally mined coal, despite its poor quality. Much of
Ollerset Moor was owned by the Duchy of Lancaster and Joseph was able to obtain
his own leases from them and other landowners, to mine coal in his own right.
He married Hannah Lowe and they moved into Moor Lodge, high on Ollerset Moor
and close to the coalfield. Joseph Hall
died there on 8th August 1843 after falling ill with hepatitis.
