LOCAL author and historian Jean Boardman had written fascinating books about the famous houses in Bolton that were once owned by entrepreneurs who shaped our town.

Her painstaking work has been developed into books named “Who lived in a house like this” which detail fine mansions that graced our streets.

Many of the occupants of these once extremely grand homes were owners of the many mills that formed the basis of Bolton’s industry.

While they lived in luxury their workers would have far less salubrious home lives but most were simply grateful to have somewhere to live and somewhere to work.

But one owner of a rather magnificent home climbed the career ladder to wealth and fortune from very humble beginnings.

Hollywood was once a home of the rich and famous — now Beaumont Hospital off Chorley New Road in Heaton.

The first mention of this imposing house, explains Jean, appears in the 1871 census when it was owned by a man named Thomas Gidlow.

His family was one of the wealthiest coal owning families in Lancashire.

The family owned the Gidlow Iron Works at Ince and was a very old Lancashire family who fought for the Royalist cause in the Civil War.

Thomas Gidlow married Elizabeth Wolstenholme in January 1857 at St Georges Church in Bolton.

Elizabeth’s father was George, “an eminent physician and surgeon of Bolton. He was also a magistrate” explains Jean.

Thomas and Elizabeth did not have children and lived at Hollywood until Thomas died in January 1884. They must have literally rattled round the huge house as anyone who has visited the hospital will know what an enormous house the old part of it is.

He was buried at Walmsley Church in Egerton.

After his death Elizabeth left Hollywood for Lostock Park which was a smaller house in Chorley New Road.

The grounds of Hollywood included Hollywood Cottage which was built for gardeners.

The grounds were extensive and stretched a long distance.

Hollywood was sold to man called William Rothwell who was a wealthy self-made man, explains Jean.

“He was born in Heaton into a family of cotton workers. His father Robert was a muslin finisher and his grandfather, William, a cotton weaver.

“Young William was working in a cotton mill when he was only nine.

“In 1871 he was a cotton spinner aged 19 and just about to be married to Eliza Thornley who also worked in the mill. They married in June 1871 and soon had a son, Frederick, born in 1872.

“By 1881 his career had changed. William was living in Halliwell at Hollin Hey and is recorded as a farmer of 32 acres.

“This was a big change and how this came about is a puzzle but he must have been an entrepreneurial young man because by 1891 after another change of direction he had become a hosiery manufacturer.”

By 1893 he owned the Victoria Mills in Bridgeman Street in Bolton and had premises in Market Street in the town centre.

William lived at Hollywood with his sisters as housekeepers and another servant.

Sadly his son died at the age of 19. He was buried at St Peter’s Church in Church Road on May 8, 1891.

Soon after this William and Eliza sold Hollywood and their business moved to Leicester where William became the manager of a hosiery mill.

He died in 1904 at the age of 52.

William Henry Higgin bought Hollywood in the 1890s — a chemical manufacturer from Eccles who lived in Bolton Road, Farnworth.

He came from a well known Bolton cotton spinning family.