Sir Ernest Hall | |
---|---|
Born | [1]
Bolton,
Lancashire, England | 19 March 1930
Nationality | English |
Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur and musician |
Known for | Restoration of Dean Clough Mills |
Children | 5 |
Sir Ernest Hall OBE (born 19 March 1930) is an English businessman, known for his restoration of Dean Clough Mills, Halifax; pianist, and composer.
Hall was born in Bolton, Lancashire [2] in 1930. [3] He was educated at Bolton College Grammar School and the Royal College of Music. [1]
Hall made his first fortune in textiles. He then sold real estate through the Mountleigh Group. In 1983, Hall sold his company for £40 million and then invested £20 million in the Dean Clough former carpet factory site.
In 1983, he led a consortium which purchased a disused carpet mill complex, Dean Clough Mills, and converted it into an arts, business, design and education complex. [4] [5] While in his 70s, he recorded the complete piano works of Frédéric Chopin. [2]
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1986 Birthday Honours and knighted in the 1993 Birthday Honours. [1]
He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs on 26 April 1998, [6] and on the Radio 3 programme Private Passions on 18 September 2005. [2]
Hall has homes in Lanzarote and in France. [7]
His autobiography, How to Be A Failure and Succeed, was published in 2008. [8]
In 1951, Hall married firstly June Annable (died 1994), and had two sons and two daughters. He married secondly in 1975 Sarah Wellby, with whom he has a third son. [1]
In 2009, he revealed that he was in a romantic relationship with his long-time friend, the cookery writer Prue Leith. [9]