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 Armitage is a village in Staffordshire, England on the south side of the Trent and Mersey Canal south just outside of the market town of Rugeley and north of the city of Lichfield, and noteworthy for the Armitage Shanks sanitary porcelain fact ...

near

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

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, (poet and author,

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Cl ...

and uncle of Baron Ribblesdale) 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 This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. The sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities ass ...

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 The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

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 Columba Ryan (born Patrick Ryan, 13 January 1916 in Hampstead – 4 August 2009) was a British priest of the Dominican Order and a philosophy teacher, university chaplain, and pastor. He was the brother of John Ryan, the British animator and c ...

External links

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