Armitage Park (which has reverted to an earlier name of Hawkesyard Hall) is a 19th-century

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

country house at Armitage near Rugeley,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

History

The land at Armitage was purchased by

Nathaniel Lister , nickname = {{Plainlist, * Nat * Nate , footnotes = Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael. People with the name Nathaniel * Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player * Nate A ...

, (poet and author, Member of Parliament for Clitheroe and uncle of

Baron Ribblesdale Baron Ribblesdale, of Gisburne Park in the County of York, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 26 October 1797 for Thomas Lister, the former Member of Parliament for Clitheroe. His great-grandson (the title having ...

) following his marriage to Martha Fletcher a Lichfield heiress and he built the house in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style about 1760. Mary Spode, Mother of Josiah Spode IV, bought the property Circa 1838 and the house was much altered and extended by her in 1839. Josiah Spode IV was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1850. On Spode's death in 1893 the property was left to his niece Helen Gulson who had a vision of Mary in the gardens of the Hall. This vision led to the building of the Church at Hawkesyard with the Altar being placed on the very spot where Mary was seen. Helen Gulson left the Hall, Church and grounds to the Dominican Order and moved into a property in the Halls grounds which became known as Gulson House. Hawkesyard became the first Roman Catholic conference centre in the United Kingdom under the guidance of Fr. Conrad Pepler. In the 1990s the Priory and dorms were converted into a nursing home. The nursing home is trading as Hawksyard Priory Nursing Home Limited and is registered for a maximum of 106 residents under a CQC registration. When the Dominicans left in 1988 the Hall fell into a state of disrepair and was boarded up. In 1999 the Hall and gardens were purchased by Relaine Estates Limited who were determined to return the building and surrounding grounds to their former glory. The Company decided to use the original name of Hawkesyard and set about the restoration of the building, partly by using photographs from Shugborough Hall's collection. The transformation of the Hall and outer buildings were completed in 2007. Hawkesyard Hall and its grounds are now primarily used as a Weddings, Conference and Events venue.

References

Images of England: Spode House
* ''Burke's History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland'' Volume 1 (1835) p 219
A guide and history of Hawkesyard Priory and Spode House, Rugeley, Staffordshire
by Columba Ryan

External links

Hawkesyard Hall Website
{{Authority control Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire Houses completed in 1760