US millionaire vows to buy historic hall

An American millionaire is launching an ambitious bid to "save" his ancestral home and preserve it for residents of a tiny Wharfedale village.

R J Hawkesworth Elias Jr from Ohio says he wants to restore Hawksworth Hall in Hawksworth village, between Ilkley and Guiseley.

His statement comes a week after Leeds city councillors on the development control panel (west) passed plans to change the former children's home into houses and allow new homes to be built on the site - despite opposition from some villagers.

The plan has now been referred to the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

Mr Elias Jr said: "After first visiting the hall in 1996, it has been my dream to strive towards purchasing the hall, restoring it, sharing it with the village and living in it - making the hall my main focus in life.

"I'm not doing this for myself. I don't have any children or a wife to buy this for. I just want to preserve it as it is, a beautiful hall, for the people of Hawksworth. Ultimately, I want to bequeath this hall to the villagers.

"I don't want houses to be built there - it's wholly wrong."

The American, who works for a medical clinic, said that he had flown to Britain a couple of times for talks with representatives of cerebral palsy charity Scope, which put the hall up for sale. He insists he is determined to buy, whatever the price.

Mr Elias Jr now wants Hawksworth residents to back his campaign. He said his ancestry in the village went back to 932.

"My family retained the original main home now referred to as Hawksworth Hall until at least 1908, which is the last time my great-grandfather, Robert Wright Hawkesworth, visited the hall with my great grandmother Anna Myers Kirtland Hawkesworth and their three children.Through her, the village came alive in my mind.

"It would be a crime to let this historic landmark vanish as a hall and be lost."

A spokesman for Scope's property services department confirmed that the hall was on the open market and that it was open to offers, but added that there had been serious interest in the hall from other parties.

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