Previous | Home | Next

This fine Victorian house is located off Dale Street, behind the Mews Hotel and probably dates back to the 1860s or 1870s, but this picture dates back to the early part of the 20th Century. At the time this photograph was taken, between 1900 and 1920, the house was occupied by Ossett rag merchant Walter F. Crowther with his wife Fanny plus their two children William and Alice Crowther.

Ossett Borough Corporation purchased Dale House on the 8th October 1947 and it was rented out to senior staff members. Rosalind Pantalleresco, who now lives in Malta, wrote to say that she lived at Dale House as a child between 1951 and 1957 during the time her father, John Alan (Jack) Brown, was the Deputy Treasurer at Ossett Town Hall. Rosalind recalls the lovely big gardens at Dale House and once coming home from Sunday School to find a swing that her father had made for her attached to the branches of a large tree in the garden. After moving to work in Beverley with his family, Jack Brown died in 1966 in his early forties, but Dale house has very fond memories for Rosalind.