Margaret and Eileen Gomersall were the granddaughter's of Frederick Walker Gomersall, who was the first cousin of Charles Frederick Walker of Duchy Drive, Heaton Bradford. Both Charles Frederick Walker and Frederick Walker Gomersall shared the same grandfather- Robert Walker, a farmer of High House, Goldsborough North Yorkshire.
Margaret and Eileen as children played in the ruins of Milner Field, they actually entered the ruin through a window at one point. Their mother knew old Mr Lister who lived in the South Lodge gate house in the 1950's before being re-located to Baildon Green. This gatehouse still had a well for water in the 1950s and Mr Lister was most excited about getting running water in the new house he was moving to.
Margaret and Eileen had a further connection, they once lived in with their parents and later owned the home farm which had once belonged to another house - The Knoll, originally owned by Charles Stead and later by James Roberts, Managing Directors of Salts Mill, Saltaire, Shipley, Yorkshire.
Charles Stead lost The Knoll, in Baildon which he built around 1859, when Salts Mill was taken over by a consortium, headed by James Roberts in the early 1890's. At the same time Edward Salt lost his house Ferniehurst, also in Baildon. All these houses have now been demolished though some gatehouses remain.
I started having dreams about Milner Field back in 2011 and soon after, mysteriously, I was contacted by a lady called Ria, who is one of Margaret's daughters and Ria herself is a third cousin of mine. She put me in touch with her mother Margaret, a former Bradford headmistress who lived in France and Margaret relayed the tales of her first hand experience of Milner Field, which can be found on the website Milner Field House, via the link below.
Visit the Milner Field House website
