Hickleton Hall
Hickleton Hall is a Grade II* listed Georgian country house in Hickleton, South Yorkshire, England, lying some 6 miles (10 km) west of Doncaster. For over 50 years (until 2012) it has been a Sue Ryder Care home but is now being converted to luxury apartments.
It was constructed in 1745-1748 of limestone ashlar with graduated slate roofs. The main range has a seven-bay frontage with flanking pavilions.[1]
History
In the 16th century a house known as Hickleton Palace stood on the site, built by Judge Francis Rodes. The present Hall was built in 1745-1748, just to the south of the original house, by James Paine for Godfrey Wentworth of Woolley, near Barnsley, who had bought the estate c.1730. He extended the house in 1777 with the addition of two low wings on either side and a servants wing. He died in 1789 and the Hall was inherited by his grandson, Godfrey Wentworth Armytage, who changed his name to Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth. He was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1796-1797. When his banking business failed he was forced to sell the property.[2]
It was purchased in 1828 by Sir Francis Lindley Wood, 2nd Baronet of Hemsworth and Garrowby and on his death in 1846 passed to his son Charles Wood, 3rd Baronet (1800-1885). Charles Wood was the MP for Grimsby, Wareham, Halifax and Ripon. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1846 to 1852 and created Viscount Halifax in 1866. He died in 1885 at the Hall, which was then inherited by his son Charles Lindley Wood (1839–1934), the 2nd Viscount and on his death by his son, Edward Wood, the 3rd Viscount Halifax, who was Viceroy of India from 1926 to 1929, Foreign Secretary from 1938 to 1940 and created Earl Halifax in 1944.
The Halifax family preferred their estate at Garrowby to Hickleton and in 1947 sold the contents of Hickleton Hall and leased the premises as a girls' school (St. Hilda's Church of England school run by members of the Order of the Holy Paraclete Convent). From 1961 to 2012 the hall and the immediate parkland were acquired by Sue Ryder Care as a Sue Ryder Home. Current plans (2013) are to convert the house into luxury apartments.
The remainder of the estate, mostly farmland, still belongs to Halifax estates under the control of the Earl of Halifax.
References
- ^ "Hickleton Hall with Attached Quadrant Walls and Walls Extended to Enclose Entrace Front Garden Havin, Hickleton". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ "Hickleton Hall". Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- "Hickleton". Doncaster and Districy Family History Society. Retrieved 19 March 2013.