Beatrix Potter, Author

Beatrix Potter was born in London in 1866. During a typically sheltered upper class childhood, she and her brother kept a succession of animals which they drew and studied. Potter excelled at drawing from nature and attempted to publish her scientific drawings with little success. In her thirties, she turned to writing and illustrating children’s stories. After being rejected by several publishers, Peter Rabbit, her first book, was published in 1902 and was an immediate success. Her thirty animal stories are still in print and widely read. Potter spent the final portion of her life as Mrs. William Heelis, living in the Lake District farming sheep, collecting antiques, and preserving the countryside she has become so firmly associated with through her books. She died in 1943.

Beatrix Potter was the daughter of Helen and Rupert Potter and was born on 28th July 1866 at their London home. Helen and Rupert Potter were both from prosperous north west Unitarian families who had made their money through the cotton trade. Her paternal grandfather, Edmund Potter was a successful cotton manufacturer with mills at Dinting, near Glossop, a radical MP, and a friend of Cobden and Bright. Her maternal grandmother, Jane Leech was from another prominent local Unitarian family, the Ashtons of Hyde and was the sister of Thomas Ashton the first Mayor of Hyde. She married John Leech, of another local Unitarian family in 1832. They had eight children (two of whom died in infancy) and it was their daughter Helen who was Beatrix Potter's mother.

Beatrix's grandfather, John Leech bought the Gorse Hall estate on the Stalybridge - Dukinfield border in 1835. Stone from nearby quarries was later used to build a mansion with stables, laid out gardens a vinery and greenhouses. The Leech's were a very wealthy family and were the main benefactors of Stalybridge Unitarian Church.

Stalybridge Unitarian Church began as a Sunday School, something not uncommon in those days, and Jane Leech gave up part of the family home, Hob Hill House (before the building of Gorse Hall), to enable the school to be started. Later, the family gave a plot of land on the edge of the estate and substantial donations for the building of the church. Mrs Jane Leech laid the foundation stone on Whit Sunday 1869 and the church was opened on Thursday February 17th 1870. Mrs Leech presented a bible to the congregation to commemorate the occasion. On the following Sunday the first services in the church were conducted by the Rev. William Gaskell of Cross Street Chapel.