Hodsock Priory is 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 ...
in
Hodsock
Hodsock is a settlement and civil parish about 4 miles from Worksop, in the Bassetlaw district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. The parish includes the village of Langold and the country house Hodsock Priory. In 2011 the parish had a ...
,
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 ...
, north of
Worksop
Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from the nor ...
, England, and south of
Blyth. Despite its name, it is not and never has been a priory. Hodsock is renowned for its
snowdrop
''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single sm ...
s in early spring. It is also a venue for special events and weddings.
Early history
Hodsock has been occupied since at least the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
and evidence of occupation from the Bronze Age, the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
and
Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
is found in the gardens. Hodsock was mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
: - 'In Hodsock Wulfsi had 2
carucate
The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...
s of land taxable'. (A carucate was of land.)
The Cressey family, who owned Hodsock from the mid-12th century for more than 200 years, were powerful enough to entertain kings of England -
Henry II,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
and
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
.
The Clifton family took over the estate at the beginning of the 15th century and owned it through 14 generations to 1765. The Tudor Gatehouse was built in the early 16th Century by Sir Gervase Clifton (1516-1688) who was the favourite of successive Tudor Monarchs.
Queen Elizabeth 1 referred to him as “Gervase the Gentle”. and
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
visited him at his home Hodsock Priory in the summer of 1541 to bestow upon him his knighthood. It is possible that it is for this occasion that the gatehouse was built.
The Mellish family
![To let notice Hodsock Priory 1840](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/To_let_notice_Hodsock_Priory_1840.jpg)
Hodsock Priory was sold by Sir Gervase Clifton in 1765, to William and his son Charles Mellish of Blyth Hall which was nearby. When Charles Mellish died in 1797 his son Henry Francis Mellish inherited both Blyth Hall and Hodsock Priory.
Henry Francis Mellish (1782-1817) was the second son of Charles Mellish and therefore not normally the heir. However his elder brother Joseph was disinherited because of his extravagance and gambling. Henry proved to be of similar character and by 1806 he was obliged to sell Blyth Hall to pay his gambling debts. Hodsock Priory then became the main residence of the Mellish family.
When he died in 1817 his sister Anne Chambers (1781-1855) inherited the house because he had no children. She made substantial alterations and additions to the property. She commissioned the eminent architect
Ambrose Poynter
Ambrose Poynter (16 May 1796 – 20 November 1886) was a British architect. He was one of the founding members of the Institute of British Architects in 1834.
Early life
Born in London on 16 May 1796, he was second son of Ambrose Lyon Poynter b ...
to add a new south wing and Italian terrace in the Gothic Revival style. Both her sons predeceased her, so on her death in 1855 the estates passed to her cousin William Leigh Mellish.
![Margaret Mellish](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Margaret_Mellish.jpg)
William Leigh Mellish (1813-1864) was the son of Rev Edward Mellish, Dean of Hereford. He was Colonel in the
Rifle Brigade
The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...
which was stationed in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and it was here that he met his wife Margaret Anne Cunard (1820-1901) daughter of Sir
Samuel Cunard
Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet (21 November 1787 – 28 April 1865), was a British-Canadian shipping magnate, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who founded the Cunard Line, establishing the first scheduled steamship connection with North America. H ...
who founded the
Cunard Shipping Line. They were married in 1843 in
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...
. The couple had five children - three sons and two daughters. Two of their sons died early: William Chambers Mellish as an infant and George Samuel Mellish of the Royal Artillery who died in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
in 1882 at the age of 21. There is a memorial window in his honour on the south wall of the parish nave in
St Mary and St Martin's Church, Blyth
St. Mary and St. Martin's Church, Blyth, is a Grade I listed parish church in Blyth, Nottinghamshire, England.
Priory
The priory of St. Mary and St. Martin is one of the oldest examples of Norman architecture in the country. It was part of a ...
. The 1861 Census records the family living at the house with a butler, a footman, a valet, a lady's maid, a governess, a housekeeper, a cook, a nurse, a nursery maid, two housemaids, two laundrymaids, a kitchenmaid and a groom.
In 1864 William died and his wife Margaret took control of the property. In 1873 she commissioned the architect
George Devey
George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex) was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was bor ...
to enlarge and alter the house. After her death in 1901 her only surviving son Henry Mellish (1856-1927) inherited Hodsock Priory. He was a bachelor who had a strong interest in meteorology and was a sharp shooter. He lived there with his two unmarried sisters Agnes and Evelyn. He died in 1927 and when the last Mellish sister died in 1935 Hodsock passed to his cousin, Mary Constance Mayhew (1901-1982) née Buchanan. Mary was the great-granddaughter of Frances Katherine Mellish (d. 1854), sister of William Leigh Mellish, who married Sir Andrew Buchanan (1807-1882), 1st baronet. Mary moved into Hodsock Priory in 1942, selling off some of the surrounding land and house contents by auction in 1946. In 1966 her nephew, Sir Andrew Buchanan, 5th baronet became the owner of the property.
[Archives hub of University of Nottingham]
Online reference
/ref> In 1991, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire
This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire. Since 1694, all Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Nottinghamshire.
*Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland 1552–1563?
*Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of R ...
. The house is now owned by George and Katherine Buchanan.
The gardens at Hodsock were developed in the first half of the 20th century under the guidance of head gardener, Arthur Ford. Ford regularly wrote articles for gardening magazines, and was reputedly head-hunted by Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...
. During the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the flower gardens were turned over to vegetables grown by the Women's Land Army
The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the ...
, who were accommodated in the house. After 1945, the house remained the property of the Mellish family. The papers of the Mellish family and the Clifton family are held by Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
.
The estate
Hodsock Priory and gardens is at the centre of the Hodsock Estate, owned by the Buchanan family since 1765. The farm is and grows carrots, wheat, barley and sugar beet. There is of managed woodland.
A 20 million gallon irrigation reservoir, constructed in 1997, covers . Carefully designed to blend with the landscape, the reservoir attracts wild waterfowl, including oystercatchers
The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...
, great crested grebe
The great crested grebe (''Podiceps cristatus'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.
Taxonomy
The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in t ...
s and common shelduck
The common shelduck (''Tadorna tadorna'') is a waterfowl species of the shelduck genus, ''Tadorna''. It is widespread and common in the Euro-Siberian region of the Palearctic, mainly breeding in temperate and wintering in subtropical regions; i ...
s. Elsewhere on the estate, bird life includes little owl
The little owl (''Athene noctua''), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at ...
s, common kingfisher
The common kingfisher (''Alcedo atthis''), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of ...
s, common kestrel
The common kestrel (''Falco tinnunculus'') is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel. In the United Kingdom, where no ...
s, green woodpecker There are four species of bird named green woodpecker:
* European green woodpecker, ''Picus viridis''
* Iberian green woodpecker
The Iberian green woodpecker (''Picus sharpei'') is a medium-sized woodpecker endemic to the Iberian peninsula. It wa ...
s, hobbies
A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing oth ...
, robin
Robin may refer to:
Animals
* Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae
* Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including:
**European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'')
**Bush-robin
**Forest rob ...
s, Eurasian wren
The Eurasian wren (''Troglodytes troglodytes'') or northern wren is a very small insectivorous bird, and the only member of the wren family Troglodytidae found in Eurasia and Africa (Maghreb). In Anglophone Europe, it is commonly known simply ...
s and long-tailed tit
The long-tailed tit (''Aegithalos caudatus''), also named long-tailed bushtit, is a common bird found throughout Europe and the Palearctic. The genus name ''Aegithalos'' was a term used by Aristotle for some European tits, including the long-tail ...
s. European hedgehog
The European hedgehog (''Erinaceus europaeus''), also known as the West European hedgehog or common hedgehog, is a hedgehog species native to Europe from Iberia and Italy northwards into Scandinavia and westwards into the British Isles.Harris, S. ...
s, red fox
The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...
es, mole
Mole (or Molé) may refer to:
Animals
* Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America
* Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...
s, voles
Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a longer, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller eyes and ears; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of low-c ...
, shrew
Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different fa ...
s, water voles, European rabbit
The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. It has ...
s and European hare
The European hare (''Lepus europaeus''), also known as the brown hare, is a species of hare native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is among the largest hare species and is adapted to temperate, open country. Hares are herbivorous and feed mainly ...
s are common.
The house is not open to the public, but the gardens and woods open to visitors in February during the snowdrop season. It is also a venue for special events and weddings.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official website
The papers of the Mellish family held by The University of Nottingham
Gardens in Nottinghamshire
Country houses in Nottinghamshire
Grade II listed buildings in Nottinghamshire
Bassetlaw District