Step inside Harrogate's Grove House, former home of Samson Fox

It was four years ago when Lee, chief executive of Springfield Healthcare, bought the six-acre site in Harrogate for just over £3m from the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB), a Friendly society similar to the Freemasons.

Lee had recently opened the Chocolate Works care village in York, the former home of the Terry’s chocolate empire, and after a chance meeting with the Buffaloes, discussions for buying the Grade II-Listed Grove House began.

He remembers his initial visit. “For my 21st birthday my parents bought me a private number plate ending GLE, and when I came to look at Grove House for the first time I drove in and the accountant came out and asked if I was from the Grand Lodge and I said ‘no’. She then pointed to the big flag on the flagpole and it had ‘RAOB’ on the top and below the crest was ‘GLE’ in big letters, and when I walked in through the front door, a huge double door with canons and there emblazoned on the matting was ‘GLE’.”

The GLE referred to the Grand Lodge of England, though it wasn’t the only coincidence he came across. When Lee bought the site, the Buffaloes donated the flag and the giant tongs and knives that Samson Fox used for special ox roastings on the Stray that he hosted for the town. “He planted an oak tree and there’s a rail around it with a plaque in commemoration and it transpired that this tree is just 30 metres directly in front of where I live.”

Lee, whose company owns seven care homes, says when he discovered that Grove Road Community Primary School was opposite Grove House, he saw the potential for creating a care home complex that combines high quality facilities for residents with wider community use.

The £15m plans, which have been submitted to Harrogate Borough Council, will see Grove House converted into 23 independent living apartments. In addition, a 70-bed care home and eight houses providing supported living for over-65s will be built on the site. Lee expects a decision on planning permission this autumn and if it is given the go-ahead work will start in spring next year and last around 18 months.

Children from the primary school will be invited to participate in regular activities alongside residents and use the grounds, including a wildlife trail and a dementia garden, for study and play.

He has already spoken to the school about his plans. “I explained that I wanted to create a fantastic intergenerational care concept where the grounds would be opened up to the children. We want to create something where the interaction isn’t just ad-hoc it’s actually put into their daily curriculum and I think it will be the first of its kind in the UK if we get this right.”

Lee, who has been in the care industry for 28 years, hopes to create a blueprint for future care home developments and at the same time build on Fox’s legacy.

Many people aren’t aware of Grove House or its story. It’s one of the reasons why it is involved in this year’s Heritage Open Days. Historian and writer Paul Jennings is leading tours around part of the house, drawing on the work of the late Malcolm Neesam, a well-known local historian, who researched and wrote about Grove House.

“It’s a really interesting house because it dates back to the 18th century and was originally an inn called The World’s End, which was a name sometimes given to pubs that were a bit remote which it would have been in those days,” says Jennings.

Over the years Grove House has been used as a school, hospital, orphanage, and convalescent home. However, it wasn’t until the 1880s and the arrival of Fox that its importance grew. “Samson Fox leased it when he came to Harrogate and then he later bought it along with much of the surrounding land to create this small estate. So he was the one who did all the major work on the house.”

Fox set up the Leeds Forge Company which patented his corrugated boiler flue that transformed the efficiency of steam boilers and made him rich and famous in the process. He moved to Harrogate and Grove House remained his home until his death in 1903. “He held a couple of banquets and balls for the town there so it was very much a public and private residence,” says Jennings.

Fox himself was a prominent figure in public life in Harrogate and a major benefactor. He provided the town with its first steam fire engine and constructed a ‘water gas’ plant that gave Harrogate some of the earliest street lighting. He also helped those in need. In winter he had food and coal delivered to the poor and he built houses, each costing less than £100, to prove that decent, affordable, homes could be built for working families.

Today, the Fox family name is synonymous with his descendants – the acting dynasty that includes James Fox, Edward Fox and his wife Joanna David and their children Freddie and Emilia Fox. Samson now has his own name up in lights thanks to a new play about his life, The Man Who Captured Sunlight, which is being staged at Harrogate’s Royal Hall on September 23.

Lee believes that Samson deserves to be more widely known. “He was mayor [of Harrogate] and he donated money towards the building of the Royal Hall, but a lot of people don’t know all this.

"There are so many people who don't know about Samson Fox when he should be championed as one of Harrogate’s finest.”

Grove House is open on September 16 as part of the nationwide Heritage Open Days festival.