The Tunstill Family

Gilbert's father, Harry Tunstill
(b.1852)

Gilbert's grandfather,
William Tunstill (d.1903)

Harry Gilbert Tunstill (known to all as Gilbert) was born on 3^rd August 1881. His great-grandfather, Henry Tunstill (b.1803) had established a cotton spinning business in the Burnley area in 1834. The company first traded as Henry Tunstill and Sons but when Henry died in 1854, control over the business passed to his two sons, Robert (b.1825) and William (b.1828) and the name was changed to Tunstill Brothers. By then the business was huge, based in a number of large mills and employing in excess of 1,500 people. Robert died, unmarried, in 1890 (leaving an estate valued in excess of £170,000) and from then the company was run by William Tunstill and his two sons, Harry (b.1852) and Robert (b.1860). Following Robert’s death in 1902, and his father’s in 1903, Harry became sole proprietor. In 1904, the company was incorporated, as Brierfield Mills Ltd, with Harry Tunstill, Mr. W.H. Hartley and Mr. J.W. Dyson as directors. At this point it comprised of two spinning mills (with more than 90,000 spindles in total), three weaving sheds (more than 2,000 looms) and various other properties.  

Gilbert's sister, Dolly.

Gilbert's sister, Cicely.

Harry Tunstill had married Margaret Ecroyd in 1879; she was the daughter of another prominent cotton manufacturer in East Lancashire and the marriage certainly strengthened the commercial position of both families in the cotton trade. The couple first set up at home at Oak Lodge, Little Marsden, near Nelson and their first three children were all born whilst the family was living there. Mary Cicely was born in February 1880, followed by Gilbert in August 1881 and Margaret Farrer (known as ‘Meta’) in 1884. The family then moved to a rather grander home at Montford Hall, near Fence, where five more daughters (Edith Dorothea – known as ‘Dolly’; Rosamond; Alice Ecroyd; Gertrude Adelaide – known as Gertie; and Constance Sybil – known as Sybil) were born between 1884 and 1893. In 1901 the domestic staff at Montford comprised of a governess to teach the girls and six other live-in servants.