Alfred Octavius Elmhirst

The youngest son, Pom was the eighth child, which led to his middle name Octavius. He was schooled at Winchester College and then was articled to Uncle Charles’ law firm in York. He failed his law exams twice and would have either sold cars or emigrated to Australia if Charles hadn’t encouraged him to try and pass third time lucky – which he did.

Pom would be instrumental in modernising the estate back in Worsbrough, bringing their original ancestral home of Houndhill back into the property portfolio after 250 years.

Houndhill, a Tudor farmhouse, had been built in the late 16th century and was inherited by Richard Elmhirst who worked as a debt collector for Cavalier, Sir Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. During the English Civil War, Sir Thomas was executed and Richard too feared for his life. He had Houndhill fortified with two towers, an incomplete surrounding wall and had a Dad’s Army-like squad of 40 inexperienced soldiers to defend it.

An attack on Houndill was made in 1643 by Sir Thomas Fairfax, Cromwell’s commander-in-chief, who spared Richard’s life. Richard went on to have nine children and Houndhill eventually passed down to his granddaughter Elizabeth who married a Copley which indirectly led to the loss of Houndhill to the Vernon-Wentworth family of Wentworth Castle.

In 1932, Pom negotiated the re-purchase of Houndhill with Captain Wentworth on behalf of Leonard, first in line to the estate. After the death of their Papa in 1948, Leonard gifted Houndhill to Pom who lived there until he died in the mid-90s.

from a biography of the Worsbrough family