1890.s

James Shenton (1837-1902+)

After Mr Marshall's death the Red House passed into the hands of another ironmaster, named James Shenton.

In the 1891 Census he is shown as an Iron Manufacturer aged 54 with a wife Elizabeth, aged 52 and three children. One remarkable alteration he made to the place was to dismantle the gas lamps in the grounds. Mr Marshall had always considered these a safeguard for the house; and it seems in this he was right, for not long after Mr Shenton took over the estate a carefully planned robbery was carried out there.

It appears it was an Autumn evening and Mr Shenton was entertaining a large party of guests. A maid in the house had her suspicions aroused upon finding an upstairs door locked. The alarm was spread, and the staff and guests began a search. It was recorded there was much commotion, and the servants, taking short cuts across the lawns to the house, found themselves continually tripped up by wires which had been stretched from tree to tree. The absence of lighting made a search or chase difficult, and the intruders got away with a useful haul, said to be in the region of £1,000.

Based on census records it would seem James Shenton was born about 1837 at Wednesbury Oak, Staffordshire. In 1858 he married Elizabeth Caddick (born 1838). In the 1861 census he was shown as a book keeper at Colliery, Potters Lane, Wednesbury . By the 1871 census he was shown as a metal broker living at Ocker Hill Road. In 1881 his is shown as an Iron Master living at Hamstead House, Hamstead Road. By 1891 he was shown as living at the Red House. It seems that by 1898 (age 59) he had become a hotel keeper at Royal Hotel, Church Walks, Llandudno where he was until at least 1902

Their children were Mary Theophala Lettitia (c. 1860), Albert/Alexander? Harry (c. 1863), Florence G (c.1867)