History

Marjorie Hurst was born around 1882 and lived with her family in "Heatherfield", The Heath, Knutsford. Her father was a manager for the Union Bank and she spent much of her later life looking after him. As a result she never married. 

Elderly residents, then schoolgirls, recall a tall, elegant woman who would always say hello. One former resident said of her "She was the sort of lady with a standing about her and someone you looked up to. She would tell us to call her Auntie Marjorie ".

She was though a woman with a social conscience and when she died around the time of the Second World War having lived into her 60s, she bequeathed a legacy to Knutsford Urban District Council of cash and property on Silk Mill Street in the centre of Knutsford to be used as "almshouses for the deserving" of the town.

Initially the almshouses were provided virtually rent free to the occupiers. Over time the dwellings fell into disrepair. In the 1980s the town councillors received permission from the Charity Commission to charge the residents a weekly maintenance contribution provided that a new trust was set up. The Charity of Marjorie Hurst was established and in the 1990s the Trustees secured a Housing Corporation grant to renovate the four remaining cottages and to build the six flats that exist on Silk Mill Street today.

In February 2024 a blue plaque dedicated to Marjorie Hurst and her father was unveiled by Peter Coan the Town Mayor and Valerie Young JP MBE, the longest-serving Trustee of the Charity. The plaque was awarded following extensive research by Jenny Collis of Knutsford Heritage Centre into the origin of the almshouses and the life of Marjorie Hurst.