Colwick Hall was an

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

Colwick Colwick ( ) is a village, civil parish, and suburb of the city of Nottingham, in the English ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire. It is situated to the east of Nottingham's city boundary, and forms the Colwick ward within the local governmen ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

. It is now a hotel. The building is Grade II* listed. Colwick Hall is constructed of red brick, with ashlar dressings and hipped slate roofs with a 2-storey central block and single-storey wings. The frontage has four Ionic pillars surmounted by a pediment.

History

The earliest references to the estate occur on the death of William de Colwick in 1362, when it passed by the marriage of his daughter Joan to Sir Richard Byron, into the Byron family. The Byrons lived here for over 150 years until about 1660, when they moved to

Newstead Abbey Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, England, was formerly an Augustinian priory. Converted to a domestic home following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is now best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron. Monastic foundation The prior ...

and Colwick Hall came into the ownership of the Musters family. John Musters replaced all of the older buildings with the present Hall in 1775–1776. The new house was built by local builder, Samuel Stretton, from designs of John Carr of York. It was enclosed with a moat, crossed by drawbridge on the north side. In 1805 John Musters's son Jack married Mary Chaworth, Byron's childhood love-interest from

Annesley Hall Annesley Hall is the all-female residence at Victoria College, University of Toronto. The residence is located across from the Royal Ontario Museum and is designated a National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (fren ...

. In 1827 Jack inherited Colwick Hall from his father, but in 1831, during the Second Reform Bill disturbances, it was sacked and partly burned by rioters. Mary Chaworth Musters spent the night in pouring rain with her daughter Sophia, crouched beneath the shrubbery and died at

Wiverton Hall Wiverton Hall (sometimes pronounced ) is an English country house near Tithby, Nottinghamshire. By 1510 the former village of Wyverton had become impoverished and reduced to just four houses and a cottage. It was in that year completely depopu ...

some four months later from the shock. Jack and Mary's eldest son, John George Chaworth Musters (1807–1842), predeceased his father. He had married Emily Hamond, the youngest daughter of Philip Hamond of Westacre, Norfolk. Both of them died of tuberculosis, leaving three orphaned children. The eldest son, John Chaworth Musters (1838–1887), inherited the estates from his grandfather Jack in 1847. He in turn was succeeded in 1887 by his son John Patricius Musters (1860–1921), who in 1888 obtained licence to add the surname Chaworth to his own. In 1896 the Hall was sold to the Nottingham Racecourse Company - the racecourse opened in 1892, the Hall became a public house and the rest of the buildings were used to accommodate grooms and jockeys. Nottingham Corporation acquired the Hall from the Racecourse Company in 1965. The building then fell into disrepair until it was saved by Chek Whyte, who won a competition to restore it. It was then sold to Pearl Hotels and Restaurants.

References

{{Commons category

External links

Official website
Country houses in Nottinghamshire Grade II* listed buildings in Nottinghamshire