Just around the corner from The Bridges pub stands the youth hostel. According to a leaflet I collected there it was built as a school for the children of her employees by Lady Mahlah Addyes Scott, Lady of the Manor of Wentnor and Ratlinghope, in 1866.
The leaflet suggests that she wanted to encourage her workers to stay with her rather than "join the drift to the factories of Industrial England".
It goes on to say that there turned out not to be enough children in the area to support a school. This is hardly surprising. Bridges is barely a hamlet and Ratlinghope is barely a village. After being left largely unused for some years, it became on of the country' first youth hostels in 1931.
You can read more about the remarkable Mahlah Addyes Scott on the Cradley Links website. She built another remarkably ornate school in the nearby village of Norbury - it is pictured on the Cradley website - which is still open today as Norbury Primary School. It must be the primary that any children who live in the empty country between the Long Mynd and the Stiperstones now attend.
Lady Scott died at the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth, which will be familiar to Liberal Democrat Conference representatives, in 1907 after a carriage accident in the street outside. She is buried at Ratlinghope Church, which will be familiar to readers of this blog.
3 comments:
More on the Mahlah Addyes Scott candlestick theft case!:
Lady Charged With Theft - Clerical J.P.'s Singular Conduct -- The Evening Telegraph and Star, Tues, November 3, 1896
Serious Charge Against a Lady -- The Shields Daily Gazette and Shipping Telegraph, Thursday, October 22, 1896
Y Brawdlysoedd, Cyhuddwyd Mahlah Scott -- Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, Tachwedd 11, 1896
The Colywn Bay Case, North Wales Assizes -- The Cheshire Observer, Saturday, November 7, 1896
That's great!
Many thanks
THE WANDERING CANDLESTICKS CASE of 1896 - not the first time the feisty old bird was up before the beak.
The following year, Mahlah was arraigned for giving her housekeeper an exhaustive slap; after burning the dinner. Fined £40 and one guinea costs. (nearly £5,000 today)
Police Intelligence: A Lady Assaults Her Cook -- The Illustrated Police News, Saturday, December 18, 1897
And in 1904, Mahlah before the bench again. For abandoning her footman in Richmond Park. "With the express object of getting rid of him". Before making off with his luggage. Bench: either return all his luggage, or pay £14 fine and two guineas costs.
Dropping a Footman -- Magistrate's Strong Comment -- The Evening Telegraph, Friday, July 8, 1904
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