Memories of 'my Manderley' '“ Fylde entrepreneur's childhood home

Basil, who owns In The Pink Leisure, grew up at the hall, which has long-since been demolished.

He wrote in to share his happy memories of his childhood at the hall and to share some old photographs from his personal collection.

Mowbreck Hall was one of the earliest brick-built houses in the Fylde.

The hall, which was half a mile from Wesham centre, was first built in the 1100s and then rebuilt in 1730. At the time of its earliest recording, Mowbreck was in the possession of the Botelers of Ireland but in 1479 it came into the hands of John Westby and his wife Mabel Boteler. The Westbys had a priest living at Mowbreck in 1727 and in 1774, there was a private school there.

The last of the Westbys to hold the estate was Joscelyn Tate Fazackerley Westby, who inherited it in 1842. The estate was bought by the Earl of Derby in 1893.

In the 1960s, it was a restaurant and country club.

Basil describes the house as his ‘Manderley’, after the imposing - and doomed - home in Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca.

Basil said: “I spent most of my childhood living there. It was the once the hunting lodge for Lord Derby, and on the main lawn, I still remember the stones placed on all the graves of his hunting dogs he buried there. For me, it was like living in Narnia.

“The housekeeper, who is on the photograph with my parents and one of my sisters was like Mrs Danvers from the novel Rebecca.”

Other parallels exist between Mowbreck Hall and the manor house – immortalised in the novel and classic Alfred Hitchcock film – both tragically burned to the ground.

“I was devastated when I returned home from boarding school to find they had sold it. Not long after that, the person who bought it just left it and it was broken into and set on fire.

“That was the end of such a beautiful home. I still have some of the furniture in my present home we took from there, and the oak panelling and a fire place.

“The picture printed in The Gazette shows a group of people mum and dad use to show round the hall at the afternoon tea parties they opened it up to.”

In 1979, the building was demolished.