Heritage Open Week - A tour of Moorside House

An exclusive guided tour by the current owner of Moorside House and gardens. A Grade II Listed building, once home to the pioneer of women’s suffrage. Lydia Ernstine Becker.

Lydia Ernestine Becker was born in Manchester in 1827. Her father, Hannibal Leigh Becker, was a churchwarden at St. James and a leading industrialist who owned a chemical works in Altham. In 1838, the family moved to Moorside House, Altham, Accrington, where they lived until 1865.

Like many girls at the time, Lydia was educated at home. She studied botany and astronomy and won a gold medal in 1862 for a scholarly paper on horticulture. She corresponded with Charles Darwin and convinced him to send a paper to the society. Lydia was one of several 19th-century women who contributed to Darwin’s scientific work. She was also recognised for her own contributions. She received a national prize in the 1860s for a collection of dried plants prepared using a method that she had developed, which preserved their original colours. On the panel of one of the doors in the house is a painting of flowers, possibly by Lydia Becker.

Lydia Becker made significant contributions to the suffrage movement. Her efforts paved the way for progress, and her legacy continues to inspire advocates for gender equality today. Making her one of the first Amazing Accrington founders.

The property, constructed circa 1830, was built by Hannibal Leigh Becker and lies in approximately 1.6 acres or thereabouts of formal gardens.

The gardens, which surround the property, are well stocked and tended and are a delight to wander through with a wide variety of rhododendrons, azaleas, roses and mature trees and shrubs. The front garden is dominated by a specimen weeping ash tree, where there are uninterrupted views over the surrounding farmland and Pendle Hill. Adjoining the rear of the property is a very private stone-flagged courtyard area which leads to a hidden garden, a courtyard, and a kitchen garden with raised beds.

Information taken from the English Heritage listing: Moor Side House II, House, c.1830. Scored stucco with quoins (painted white), moulded gutter cornice, stone slate roof with gable chimneys and copings. Double pile 3-bay plan, with service wing to rear of 1st bay. Two storeys, symmetrical, in Perpendicular Gothic style: Tudor-arched doorway with hoodmould, large 4-light stone mullion windows also with hoodmoulds. The right return wall has one similar 3-light window on each floor, the rear has a large Tudor-arched starlight with glazing bars (radiating in the head), and some sashed windows also with glazing bars. Interior: stone staircase with iron twist balusters; moulded plaster ceiling frieze and alcove in drawing room; original door furnishings (panels of one door decorated with paintings of flowers, possibly by Lydia Becker).