A Tour of Onchan 2
Round The Edges.

The Hague Farm

This is undoubtedly the oldest inhabited dwelling in the centre of Onchan and parts of the house and range of farm buildings can just be seen from Hague Walk.

The quarterland was originally known as Ballafohague but split into The Hague and Bemahague. Obviously there have been many owners over the years but perhaps the best known was Richard Betham LL.D who was the first Receiver General (Collector of Customs) following its sale of the Isle of Man to the British Crown by the Duke of Athol in 1765. He came to the island from Thrimley Grange, Westmoreland and lived in Douglas until 1768 when he purchased The Hague.

He was the collector at Douglas for 24 years until his death on 31st May 1789. His wife Mary (neé Campbell) died within a year of them coming to the island and she was buried at Onchan in the small churchyard surrounding the old church where Richard was ultimatly to join her. Upon his death the property was left equally to his daughter Anne and son Campbell who sold the property in January 1790 to Alexander Cook of Galloway, the Commander of the customs cutter Prince Edward, for £1,200.

Richard Betham had paid £650 for the estate 22 years earlier and in 1772 he took out a mortgage with William Callow of Castletown for £250 which was probably to build the house which we see today. Certainly when Cook had an estate map produced at the time of his purchase the house was shown on it in elevational form.

Surprisingly a share in the estate was not left to Richard’s other remaining daughter Elizabeth who was married in the parish church at Onchan on 4th February 1781. Her husband was a young naval Lieutenant who had sailed with Captain Cook to Australia, New Zealand and the Sandwich Isles. His name was William Bligh, later to become famous as Captain Bligh of HMS Bounty. In 1856 the house became a seminary for young ladies but it is not known how long this lasted. It was purchased with the rest of the Hague Farm by L.L. Corkill in the 1930s and in the mid 1960s he re-roofed and re-rendered the house. In 1977 plans were approved for a major restoration of the house including the rebuilding of the east wing and the addition of a sun lounge.

The Hague Farmhouse taken before the extension of 1977 on the right hand side. Here the property had been re-roofed and re-rendered in the mid 1960s and a flat roof had been placed over the porch which previously had a slate roof hidden behind the parapet wall.

27 – 33 Summerhill Road

These four properties were built in a narrow field close to the Hague Farm with a space left in between for potential future development of the land behind when laid out by L.L. Corkill. The first two bungalows were designed by Kay and Gill, architects of Douglas and building commenced in 1964.

The detached house was designed in 1965 by R.H. Cain for the son of J.B. Pendlebury, author of a standard work on the English Language for secondary schools and English master at Douglas High School for Boys. The final bungalow also came from the stable of Kay and Gill and was a prefabricated house built by Cregeen and Kelly who had built several similar bungalows at Ballasalla on the Silverburn Estate.

72 – 86 Summerhill Road

This group represents the oldest of the ‘between the wars’ houses to be built in the area following the sale of land by Mr Penny. Numbers 72/74 and 76/78 were both designed in 1927 by R.H. Cain. Number 72 was greatly extended to the left in 1990. Numbers 84 and 86 were built by J.T. Skillicorn with the latter being a Skillicorn family house for many years. Numbers 80 and 82 were a smaller version of this pair.

A 1930s view of Summerhill Road before the road widening some 20 years later. The pair of houses on the extreme right were built by J.T. Skillicorn and he lived in one of them as did his son Harold.

Onto Strathallan Park