Shireoaks Hall

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Shireoaks Hall
Nottinghamshire

Shireoaks Hall
Location
Grid reference: SK55248059
Location: 53°19’10"N, 1°10’20"W
History
Built 1612 – 1617
For: Thomas Hewett
by John Smythson
Country house
Information

Shireoaks Hall is a Jacobean country house, sadly largely demolished, in the hamlet of Shireoaks in the north of Nottinghamshire, two and a quarter miles north-west of Worksop. It is a Grade II* listed building.[1]

This is a modestly sized house, originally built between 1612 and 1617 for Thomas Hewett, probably by the architect John Smythson (son of Robert Smythson). It was remodelled around 1700 and further restored in 1812 and again after 1975.

The house is built of coarse square rubble with a slate roof and stands in a rectangular park of 40 acres, formerly open parkland with avenues of trees, fishponds and a deer park, but which is now enclosed as farmland.

The 17th and 18th-century landscaped park that surrounds the hall is Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[2]

History

Shireoaks manor had a special association with the ancient oak woodlands (part of Sherwood) which grew where the counties of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire met: the precise location was debated, but one enormous tree standing in the 18th century was said to overhang all three.[3][4] The hall though is entirely in Nottinghamshire.

The estate acquired

The manor of Shireoaks was given to the Priory of Worksop by Emma de Lovetot, whose husband William de Lovetot founded the priory in 1105.[5] The Prior and convent leased the grange to Henry Ellis and his wife Dame Luce in 1458.

In August 1546, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII, the manor, lordship or grange, with appurtenances in Sherockes, Gytford and Derfold (Darfoulds), was granted to Robert and Hugh Thornhill of Walkeringham with licence to alienate it to Thomas Hewett, Clothworker of London.[6][7][8] At about the same time Thomas Hewett had acquired the house and lands of Roche Abbey at Maltby in the West Riding of Yorkshire, about seven miles north of Shireoaks, from which he could have recovered building stone. He kept Roche for 18 years until granted licence to alienate it to Richard Hunt of Manchester in January 1563/64.

The estate shortly afterwards purchased by Thomas Hewitt, a Yorkshireman who had become a wealthy cloth merchant in London.

The first Hall

Sir Thomas Hewitt, grandson of the original Thomas Hewitt, built the hall standing today, at some time before he conveyed the manor to William Wrottesley in 1619 (presumably as a marital endowment). The design of the building is attributed to the architect John Smythson, son of Robert Smythson, and the date of the work probably between 1612 and 1617.[9] Old heraldic arms were restored to Sir Thomas in 1618 by Richard St George.[10]

This was a substantial but compact rectangular structure built of Magnesian Limestone, its principal frontages facing south-west, to a prospect of the park and estates, and north-east overlooking a large enclosed rectangular terrace garden on the same lateral alignment, with the course of the river Ryton just beyond. Across the upper terrace next to the house a path aligned on the central axis of the house leads down a flight of steps to the main broad terrace, across this and beyond, to two further flights leading to narrower lower terraces towards the river.[11] The Hall stands midway along the south-western edge of this garden, the perimeter walls enclosing a considerable area of land thought to have been laid out thus in the original phase of construction.[12]

At Sir Thomas Hewett's death in 1660 or 1661, the estate fell to his grandson, also named Thomas, who inherited at the age of four.

This younger (Sir) Thomas Hewett served in the Yeomen of the Guard to King Charles II, then travelled in Europe for four or five years: in 1689 in Geneva he married, and brought his young wife Frances home to Shireoaks.[13] Thomas settled the manor and premises in Shireoaks upon his marriage, by lease and release to Sir Edward Betenson in 1692.[14] He made extensive alterations and improvements to his house and park at Shireoaks.

The chapel at Shireoaks: now the village hall

In 1787, Shireoaks and other properties were inherited by the Revd. John Hewett (1722-1811), as the male heir of his father Revd. John Hewett of Harthill (c.1690-1757). He came to the estate of Shireoaks at the age of 65 and enjoyed it for more than 20 years. He built a chapel of ease attached to the estate in 1809: "a neat stone edifice, consisting of a nave and chancel, with an octangular tower surmounted by a cupola."[15] This structure, minus the tower, is now the Shireoaks village hall.

The gardens

After his return from Geneva, Sir Thomas Hewitt set about improvements to the Hall and to the gardens. Two pools were developed to the north-east of these, enclosing the north-west boundary of the terraced garden. A canal pool, called the "Fountain Pool", was created below the north-east side of the terraces, 417 feet long and 70 feet wide, with a semi-circular extension at the centre of the farther side (corresponding to the house axis), presumably the position of a fountain.[16]

The basin pool to feed the cascades

The main extent of the park (now mostly agricultural land) lay south-west of the Hall, between Thorpe Lane to the north, Spring Lane to the east, Steetley Lane to the south and Dumb Hall Lane and Netherhall Lane in the west. Through this landscape Sir Thomas Hewett laid out a formal prospect. A great lawn extended from the south front of the Hall, ending in a ha-ha to exclude livestock from the park without interrupting the view. Beyond this, in line with the central (front-to-back) axis of the Hall itself, he built a garden canal 820 feet long. This was fed from a circular basin 400 feet in diameter situated (on the same line) in a woodland plantation 900 yards from the Hall, itself fed by a 450-yard culvert from Netherhall. Between the basin and the farther end of the canal was created an artificial system of 34 cascades falling through 12 separate pools. Over all this distance was a pathway along the south side and a sheltering line of yew trees interspersed with a single linden tree after every third yew.[2]

Two long, straight avenues of beech trees were planted on lines opening away symmetrically from the Hall and diverging from the canal as their median axis, so as to frame the Vista (the arrangement called a "patte d'oie"). A third avenue crossed between the further ends, and the woodlands to the north of the basin (Shireoaks Park Wood) and those to the south-west of it (Scratta Wood) formed the distant backdrop to the scene. In Scratta Wood Sir Thomas built a pavilion or banqueting house in Italian style. It was a rectangular structure with flights of steps to entrances at each end. Inside were three rooms with marble walls and floors, each differently appointed with pilasters according to the three classical orders, and with "little Cupids on several Angles prettily design'd".[17] The ceilings were painted by Henry Trench (an Irish historical painter who studied in Italy and died in 1726[18]), and the building housed a Bust (sculpture)|bust of Sir Thomas Hewett by John Michael Rysbrack.[19][20] Hewett's banqueting house no longer exists.

Sir Thomas also formed or enlarged the deer-park. The works were not entirely complete at his death in 1726: "Whereas I have begun the building of the house in the wood called Scratoe[21] and also have designed to make severall Cutts and other ornaments in and about the said Wood according to a draught and design I have made and drawn thereof", he therefore empowered his trustees to complete the work. He made his widow's lifetime tenure of the hall dependent (among other responsibilities) upon her maintaining there a herd of 200 deer. He asked to be buried in the chancel of the church at Wales, Yorkshire, where the family originates, and where he has a monument with an informative inscription.[22]

Decline

In 1810 the Revd. John made a deed of gift of the Hall and estate to his relative John Wheatley, reserving his own lifetime occupancy. Wheatley instantly (the same day) re-sold it to Vincent Eyre, agent for Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, seated at Worksop. The new owner soon began to cut down the beech avenues, greatly to the Revd. Hewett's mortification, and while he was unable to prevent what had been done, he showed in law that the timber was not contained in the sale and obliged the owner to pay for it. On his last excursion from the hall the old man's carriage was actually obstructed from passing by the felled trees lying across the way. The shock of this devastation brought on his death (aged 89) in 1811.[23] He is said to be buried in his chapel.[24]

The death of the Revd. Hewett left the Duke a free hand: the Hall itself was torn down except for that portion of the walls which were bought for a small sum by Mr Froggett, of Sheffield, and fitted up as a dwelling.[25] The Duke's descendants sold it in 1842, together with their Manor of Worksop, to the then Duke of Newcastle. In 1854 the latter Duke's successor discovered a valuable coal seam beneath the land, in time sold much of it to the Shireoaks Colliery Company, and in 1863 built a church for the growing colliery village.[20][26]

In 1945 the hall, by now somewhat dilapidated, was sold to a local farmer. The house and the water gardens have been separately owned since the 1970s.

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1370408: Shireoaks Hall (Grade II* listing)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 National Heritage List 1000367: Shireoaks Hall (Register of Historic Parks and Gardens)
  3. ↑ J. Stacye (contributor), 'On the true site of the celebrated Shireoak' (Proceedings), Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XXX (1874), pp. 202-05 (Google).
  4. ↑ J. Evelyn, Sylva: Or, a Discourse of Forest-trees, and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions, Fifth Edition (London 1729), p. 202 (Google).
  5. ↑ A History of the County of Nottingham - Volume 2 pp 125-129: Houses of Austin canons: The Priory of Worksop (Victoria County History)
  6. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 1951; 1979 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09636-1page 310
  7. ↑ [Thoroton's History of Nottinghamshire Vol III, pp. 400-01
  8. ↑ 'Grants in August 1546' in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 21 Part 1: January-August 1546
  9. ↑ M. Girouard, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (Yale University Press, New Haven 1983), pp. 134-38 and Pls. 74-75. (Original: Country Life 1966).
  10. ↑ J. Foster, ed. W.H. Rylands, Grantees of Arms Named in Doquets and Patents to the End of the XVII Century Harleian Society LXVI (1915: Reprint by The Armorial Register Limited, 2016), p. 123 (Google), citing Harleian MS 1422 fol. 16, and B.M. Add. MS 5524, fol 206.
  11. ↑ 'Gardens and Pleasure grounds', in English Heritage, "Shireoaks Hall", Official Listing.
  12. ↑ N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 2nd Edition (Harmondsworth 1979), pp. 312-13.
  13. ↑ J. Holland, 'The History, Antiquities, and Description of the Town and Parish of Worksop' (1826), pp. 176-77
  14. ↑ University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections, Newcastle family of Clumber Park papers, ref. Ne 6 D 2/39/1 (Calm).
  15. ↑ White, Directory, pp. 469-70 (Google).
  16. ↑ National Heritage List 1021383: Formal and water gardens at Shireoaks Hall (Register of Historic Parks and Gardens)
  17. ↑ Colvin, History of the King's Works, V, pp. 71-72, citing a description by George Vertue.
  18. ↑ W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists, 2 Vols (Maunsell and Company, London and Dublin 1913), II.
  19. ↑ (Pevsner and Williamson 1979)
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Nottinghamshire History: The Dukeries
  21. ↑ Sir Thomas's will reads "Scratoe" in the register, but other sources call the wood "Scratta".
  22. ↑ Will of Sir Thomas Hewett of Shireoakes, Nottinghamshire (P.C.C. 1726, Plymouth quire).
  23. ↑ Holland, History of Worksop, pp. 177-78 (Internet Archive).
  24. ↑ R. White, Worksop, "The Dukery" and Sherwood Forest (1875), p. 85 (Internet Archive).
  25. ↑ Holland, History of Worksop; W. White, Directory, pp. 469-70.
  26. ↑ 'Cap. cxv: Shireoaks District Church Act, 1861', in G.K. Rickards, The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 25 Part 1: 24 and 25 Victoria, A.D. 1861 (Eyre and Spottiswoode, London 1861), pp. 458-59 (Google).
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