Posted by RichardG on March 15, 2006 at 15:31:41 from 217.207.172.242 user RichardG.
In Reply to: Re: How was it all paid for? posted by Jock on March 14, 2006 at 22:24:46:
Perhaps the family (Turners or Blacketts ?) had made their money in the Lancashire cotton (or coal) industry in the nineteenth century and were living either off their capital or the income from their investments. It seems that Jim & Molly's parents died young, so perhaps that was when the family business was sold off and a trust fund was set up for the young Turners ? Beckfoot could have been the family's country house when they escaped from the mills and mines in the south of the county, and their "town" house would have gone with the business, leaving them with a well-appointed house in which the GA could bring up Jim and Molly without having to come into contact with the industrial working classes. If that was Beckfoot's original purpose, it would not have needed local land as it's income was coming from further afield.
Of course, the family could have made their money from piracy........! Not only would that explain Nancy, but could also be why the GA was so prim and proper - one of the primmest GAs in my family was the one with something to hide in her background......