Debt of gratitude
Lieutenant Colonel Austin Townsend Porritt, born in Greenmount in 1875, was the grandson of James Porritt, one of three brothers who began a wool manufacturing business (Porritt & Spencer Ltd) in Lancashire in 1838. Col. Porritt raised the 2nd/5th Battalion, The East Lancashire Regiment and later took the Battalion to France and Flanders, but was invalided home in 1917. It was on returning home that Col. Porritt moved to Grange, a place where he had holidayed over the years and which held a special place in his heart.
In this celebratory issue, we would like to show our gratitude to the Porritts, a family who gave Grange many of the wonderful amenities it still enjoys today.
A Potted History
Celebrating Grange Hotel’s 150th Anniversary
Regarded with huge affection and respect by all who knew him, Lt. Col. Porritt met and married his wife, Annie Louise Schofield-Law from Grange and they had one child, a son, named Richard.
The family lived at Yewbarrow Lodge and Lt.Col. Porritt was the Chairman of Grange Urban Council for many years and was also the Chairman of the Special Bathing Pool Committee which was instrumental in building the Olympic size swimming pool on the Promenade - our now defunct lido. It is thanks to his generosity that we are able to enjoy the Community Orchard, the Sunken Gardens, the Memorial Playing Fields Pavilion, Yewbarrow Lodge and the surrounding Orchard. He also paid for the reseating of St. Paul’s Church with oak pews, the panelling of the west end of the church and the building of a new porch and baptistry.
Tragedy was to befall this generous man when his son, who had become one of the youngest ever MP’s when he took his seat in the commons in 1935 at the age of 24 decided to go to war. He became the first MP to die in the second world war when, at the age of 29, he was killed in Seclin, near Lille during the retreat to Dunkirk. It was when the Colonel and Annie were in London to receive a medal which had been awarded posthumously to Richard, that they received the news that their home, Yewbarrow Lodge, had been destroyed by an enemy bomb. Annie sadly died shortly after. Col. Porritt never returned to Yewbarrow Lodge, and instead lived out the rest of days at the Grange Hotel. On his death, he gifted the lodge and the land surrounding (now the Orchard) to Grange Urban Council for the benefit of the people of Grange. He died in 1956 and was buried, alongside his wife, in Grange Cemetery.
Colonel Porritt’s cousin, Harold, was also a benefactor and it is thanks to him that we are able to enjoy the playing fields in Grange. He was also responsible for gifting the tea rooms on the prom and the bandstand which originally stood on the prom. This was moved to its current position after ladies complained that soot from the passing steam trains was ruining their clothes.
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