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Hopwell Hall country house near 
In 1921 Cecil Henry Pares gave Hopwell Hall and 15 acres of its land to
Ockbrook
Ockbrook is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is almost contiguous with the village of Borrowash, the two only separated by the A52. The civil parish is Ockbrook and Borrowash. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 Census was 7,335. ...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
was built in 1720. It was owned by five generations of the Pares family from 1786 to 1921. The hall was demolished after a fire in 1957.
The hall was built by Henry Keyes on the site of the previous 16th century hall belonging to the Sacheverell family. Henry Keyes inherited the estate in 1661 from his cousin Ferdinand Sacheverell. Keyes acquired neighbouring land from the Piggin family to extend his estate.
Thomas Pares I (1716-1805) was an attorney in Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
and his uncle was John Pares who had been Mayor of Leicester in 1714. Thomas married Ann Norton and they bought the family estate of Hopwell Hall in 1786. Their eldest son Thomas Pares II (1746-1824) was a wealthy lawyer and banker in London, who owned numerous properties including Narborough Hall
Narborough Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Narborough in Leicestershire. Believed to date from 1596 this Elizabethan manor house was built by James Meade, a local landowner. However it wasn’t until it was extensively remodelled in th ...
and Greyfriars, Leicester
Greyfriars, Leicester, was a friary of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans, established on the west side of Leicester by 1250, and dissolved in 1538. Following dissolution the friary was demolished and the site levell ...
. When his father died in 1805 Thomas inherited Hopwell Hall which he retired to. He died unmarried and with no children in 1824 and left a long complicated will. Most of his land including Hopwell Hall went to his younger brother John Pares (1749-1833). However Narborough Hall and its estate were passed on to his niece Mary Ann Dod (1776-1846), daughter of his sister Ann Pares who had married John Dod of Cloverley. John Pares was a hosiery manufacturer and banker who lived in Leicester and died in 1833. His eldest son Thomas Pares III (1790-1866) was a lawyer and MP for Leicester from 1818 until 1826 and he inherited Hopwell Hall. His eldest Thomas Henry Pares (1830-1878) inherited the family estates, as did his son Major Edward Henry Pares JP (1854-1931). The hall was let to tenants from the 1890s.
In 1921 Cecil Henry Pares gave Hopwell Hall and 15 acres of its land to Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. It consists of 66 county councillors, elected from 56 electoral divisions every four years. The most recent election ...
as a special residential school for boys. He had inherited the estate after his elder brother Lieutenant Thomas Edward Pares was killed in action in 1917 during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Cecil chose to live at the family's home at Calvi in Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
, rather than at Hopwell Hall. A new wing was opened in 1948 which doubled the school's size. A fire destroyed the hall in 1957 and it was demolished. A new concrete building was erected on the site of the old hall and the special school continued to operate there until it was closed in 1995.{{Cite web, title=Hopwell School - GOV.UK, url=https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/129739?searchQueryString=z=a&startIndex=19100&Count=50403, access-date=2020-06-28, website=www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk, language=en There is now a large private house on the site called Hopwell Hall.
The archive of documents from the Pares family and the Hopwell Hall estate was donated to the Derbyshire Record Office
The Derbyshire Record Office, established in 1962, is the county record office for Derbyshire, England. It holds archives and local studies material for the County of Derbyshire and the City of Derby and Diocese of Derby. It is situated in Matl ...
in 2000.
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