This view of Kellington Manor is taken in 1957 from the south, and shows the French windows which opened from the drawing room onto the lawn.

The Poskitt family decided to sell Kellington Manor in about 1934/35. They sold it to William Toulson and his wife Mary, who moved in with their three children, Hugh aged 14, Betty aged 12 and Jean aged 10

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The Toulsons had lived at a house called Whiteholme in Womersley Road, Knottingley. William had built this house himself using materials from the family sand and gravel business, Stephen Toulson & Co. However, William wanted to live closer to the company offices and depot, which were near Kellingley Colliery -the remains of the office and sheds can still be seen from the A645 road.

William made some changes to the house, including installing some very old oak panelling in the sitting room that had come from a centuries old house, Finningley Hall, which was on land bought by the Toulson company, and later became the site of RAF Finningley - this closed in 1996 and is now Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport. William also installed a billiards table on the top floor of the house.

This is a photograph of the house in 1940. View taken from the east, looking at what was then the main front door for visitors. The row of Kellington Manor poplar trees that ran along Whales Lane is visible to the south and the stables can be seen just north of the house.

The house consisted of the main house, plus stables in which the children kept two horses - Rajah for Hugh and Billy for Betty - and a pony for Jean. Mr. Kidd from Kellington taught them how to ride. In the 1940s after Billy died, and the Second World War began to bite, the stables were no longer used for horses and the pony and Rajah were sold. Mr Shepherd from Knottingley, who worked at Kellington Manor for over 30 years, looked after the garden and animals. Pigs were then kept in the stables, and hens and a goat in the orchard, to help provide food during the war.

Hugh enlisted in the Royal Engineers.

Here are Hugh and Jean in 1942 on Hugh's newly purchased Norton motorbike, outside the stables.

As Kellington was surrounded by airfields during the Second World War, the village and surrounding villages were a whirl of social activity but also war-time tragedy. This is a picture of a bomber crew, including a boyfriend of Betty's, based at nearby Pollington Airfield. This entire crew were killed when their plane crash landed outside Driffield while returning from a mission over Germany.

Kellington Manor, including its gardens, changed considerably after the war as Hugh, Betty and Jean moved out.

In the 1950s, as their children had left, William and Mary decided to try living in Knottingley, and moved to a house called The Close (now the council offices in Knottingley). They didn't settle and came back to Kellington Manor, which they hadn't sold in the interim because William loved the house. William and Mary in 1950.

This aerial view of the house was taken in 1958, and shows the new garage and greenhouse built next door to the stables. The area to the north of the house is still separate, and the poplar trees run along Whales Lane at the west of the house, marking one side of a formal garden that included a pond at the centre.

William and Mary on their way to a nephew's wedding in the 1950s; the sundial which was in the garden is in the background.

In the early 1960s William made the top floor into a self-contained flat, and removed the internal staircase but added an outside staircase and a front door to this flat. The flat was possibly intended for a chauffeur, but was never lived in by one. Later on in the 1960s a sun parlour was added at north side (not true north, as this was always a sunny room!) of the house, which led into the dining room. The orchard became grassed over, but as always the row of poplar trees stood in a line against along Whales Lane, looking over to Kellington Church.

View of the house in 1963 showing the new external staircase and sun parlour. The garden has been considerably simplified and much of it turned into lawn. A rockery has been added at the north of the house, and a swing is in place, next to the line of pollarded willows on the east boundary of the garden, for William and Mary's grandchildren.

If you had walked around the house in the 1960s, you might have come in through the main entrance on the east side of the house, or the slightly less grand side entrance on the north side of the house -- or more likely through the yard on the west side of the house nearest to Whales Lane.

You would have opened a wrought iron gait, to come into the yard, which had a wash house complete with old fashioned copper for washing the clothes, on the other side of the yard was a large wooden and painted-glass door into the kitchen. This was white tiled with a gas cooker and an enormous fridge from 1950s, and often had hams hanging to cure from the ceiling.

The next room was the dining room which had one door leading to the cellar, which flooded regularly, double doors leading into the sun parlour, and another door leading to the main hallway.

Off this hall were doors to a bathroom, and to the drawing room that had a baby grand piano for Mary and the children to play; the drawing room had French windows leading onto the lawn at the south of the house (which is now the car park for the current Kellington Manor Hotel).

This room was relatively rarely used, as the family spent most evenings in the oak-panelled sitting room, which contained the television, and which also came off the main hallway. One further room leading from the hallway was the breakfast room, which William used as his office and which also contained his collection of shotguns. The front door and side door opened onto the hallway.

Upstairs were four bedrooms plus a small dressing room leading off William and Mary's bedroom, and one bathroom. The house was generally light an airy, and decorated in pale colours. Each bedroom had a colour scheme of its own, with matching curtains, cushions etc.

In 1968 Mary had a fall and broke her hip, resulting in a catastrophic decline in William's health, as he had been suffering from cancer. A few days after Mary was rushed to Pontefract Infirmary, William was taken to the same hospital, suddenly very ill from the effects of his cancer. He died within the week, and as Mary was still in hospital she could not get to his funeral. He was buried a few days short of their 50th wedding anniversary, in Kellington Church, in sight of the house.

This is the house in 1975, showing the outside staircase, sun parlour and kitchen entrance through the yard.

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Betty's husband and son getting ready to go to another family wedding at Kellington Church, in 1975. They are standing next to the stables and Kellington Church is just visible in the background.

The garden and rockery at the north side of the house, Jean, Mary and Betty going to the same wedding at Kellington Church in 1975. .

Mary stayed in the house, sometimes with lodgers to keep her company, until it was sold in 1977 to become Treetops. She went to live in Knottingley and eventually moved in with her daughter Betty. Mary died in 1988 and is buried with William. Their son Hugh is also buried in Kellington Churchyard. The Toulson Company which used to send its red lorries all over the north of England, ferrying sand and gravel around, was sold to Amey Roadstone in the early -1970s and no longer exists.

The remaining members of William and Mary's family - one surviving daughter and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren - all visit Kellington and have had meals at the house in its new incarnation, which, as Betty says, is rather a strange experience - but the food is always good! It is a little strange though walking from room to room and remembering it as a family home. However, good to know that the house has survived and is thriving. The stables now house independent homes and much else of the land has been built on, and it all looks green and prosperous.