Family tree reveals a historic nugget

HOW Nugget Street in Glodwick — named after a nineteenth century Australian gold nugget find — looks today

A WEST Sussex businessman who traces his roots back to Oldham, owes the success of his cosmetics company to his gold-mining great-grandfather.

David Lees runs Queen, a business selling hypoallergenic products, which he bought in the 1970s.

And the 67-year-old entrepreneur was able to fund the business thanks to his great-grandfather’s achievements as a gold prospector in Australia in the 1850s.

John Lees, who was born in Glodwick in 1822, sailed to Melbourne in 1852 and found a gold nugget weighing 134lbs 11oz at Canadian Gully, Ballarat.

When John returned to England the nugget was shown to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he became a local celebrity — with Nugget Street in Glodwick being named in honour of his discovery.

In 1854, John got married and built a row of houses in Glodwick Lane before journeying to New Zealand and Australia. He died in 1899.

John’s son, Charles Lees (David’s grandfather), was a scientist born in 1864 and had a number of papers published in the Philosophical magazine.

Charles’s older brother, John, became borough accountant and treasurer of Oldham and his younger brother Edward became general manager of the Manchester and County Bank.

The family left Oldham when Charles got a job at Imperial College, London University, as a professor of physics and they eventually settled in Sussex.

In the 1970s, when he was cleaning his mother’s loft, David discovered a series of letters that John had written to his wife.

The sale of the letters — which are now in the Latrobe Museum in Melbourne — at Sotheby’s enabled David to buy Queen.

David, who is married with two children, often visits the North-West and his children and grandchildren are very interested in the history of the Lees family.

He said: “With all the recent television programmes about tracing your history, my daughter has been keen to put together a family tree for her two-year-old son.

“It’s been great to talk about the family, and I think they are surprised there’s been some quite exciting and interesting stuff there. They are even planning a trip to Oldham to try and find out more.

“I love the whole gold nugget story. What an amazing and intrepid man my great-grandfather must have been.”