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| A Brief History |
| Page Two |
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Winter snows fall, but it is a lovely peaceful place, especially for the wild birds which feed on the copious supplies of holly berries.
Bleakholt’s founder was Olive Lomas. She began the society by renting Bleakholt Farm and rescuing worn out horses to prevent them being exported to France for horsemeat. Her family of animals grew to include cats, dogs, goats and ponies as well as horses and donkeys.
Conditions were poor, dog kennels were leaking and the rescued horses were housed in old railway wagons. There was no heating in the kennels and cat buildings.
Desperately short of funds, she opened two second hand shops which she rented, one at Accrington the other at Blackburn, and she also ran a clothes stall on Bury Market.
Funds were very low and creditors were always requesting payment. Mr Nutt the vet often waved his fees.
At this stage Rosabell Bird, generous and caring, entered the scene bringing six horse blankets for the old horses in answer to an appeal in the ‘Manchester Evening News’.
Rosabell agreed to run a charity shop in Stretford even though she was in full time employment. Conditions here were poor; there was no heating, there were bare floorboards, a cracked window and worse still, nothing to sell! No goods ever came from the sanctuary, only telegrams and phone calls saying “No money to pay the staff’s wages” (all three), “No money to feed the animals”.
Rumplestiltskin-like, Rosabell was expected to spin gold out of straw, and she did.
Rosabell organised the shop by getting volunteers, going herself each night after work, and attending Buxton auction each Saturday night to buy chairs, tables, beds, prams, bric-a-brac, trolleys, chests – anything that would sell, and thus by the following Friday night she was able to hand over the takings to Mrs Lomas.
Sundays were spent filling the shop with goods and arranging the window display. This effort continued for five years, but Stretford Council demolished the shop and thus this income. It is now a grassy tree lined verge.
The situation at Bleakholt became critical as more and more cruelly treated and abandoned animals were taken in. Olive Lomas moved out of her farmhouse and into a caravan in order to provide accommodation for the animals
She also rented a second 360 acre farm at Tosside in Yorkshire. For a time Bleakholt’s horses and dogs were there, looked after by a Mr Edgar. Unable to meet the asking price of £12,000 she had to relinquish this magnificent farm in the trough of Bowland, but she maintained the shooting rights to protect the wildlife.
Rosabell meanwhile, after the loss of the shop, began to run stalls with her hand-made gifts, at Tosside on Sundays, and others at Bury Market and Wigan Precinct.
Miraculously at this time, Margaret Duchess of Argyll arrived on the scene in response to an appeal letter from Olive Lomas. She paid off the existing vets bills and became President – a hands on one too – She regularly visited the Sanctuary and came to all the Annual General Meetings, with her pet poodle.
She insisted on Bleakholt becoming a registered charity, with an elected committee of Management and a Treasurer. Olive Lomas left having laid the foundations of the charity, and Rosabell became a Committee member, together with others including a Treasurer, Mrs Kathleen Butterworth.
