aerial view of knockbrex house
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There has been a house at Knockbrex since the end of the 16th century when it was owned by the Gordon family. The family had problems - denounced as rebels and later known as Covenanters, the estate was taken by the Crown and remained so until 1675.
At the time the Borgue Horticultural Society was formed, Knockbrex House was a plain harled two storey house located on the right half of the building in the aerial photo. According to the 1861 census, it was owned by James Young aged 31, a proprietor in houses, his wife and their two sons.
In 1894, at the age of 44, James Brown, owner of the department store Affleck and Brown in Manchester, bought the house and eight adjoining farms. In 1900 he had the original house refaced and incorporated into the present large asymmetrical country house.
When he died in 1920, his estate was left in trust to his three children, who in 1928 sold the house so that the two daughters could realise their inheritance.
These pictures show the estate during the early 1900's