Sugworth Hall is an English country house on Sugworth Road in

Bradfield Dale Bradfield Dale is a rural valley west-northwest of the City of Sheffield in England. The valley stands within the north-eastern boundary of the Peak District National Park just west of the village of Low Bradfield. The dale is drained by the St ...

, near

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, England. It is situated approximately west from

Sheffield City Centre Sheffield City Centre (referred to locally as simply Town) is a district of the City of Sheffield and is covered partly by the City ward of the City of Sheffield. It includes the area that is within a radius of roughly of Sheffield Cathedral ...

. The hall is a Grade II

listed building 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 ...

which stands within the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

National Park at a height of above sea level.

History

The exact date of construction of Sugworth Hall is unknown,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and some publications list it as 17th century but it was first mentioned in the

will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

of Robert Hawksworth who was the resident of a building on the site in the 1560s. It is likely that the hall looked completely different at that time with the core of the building being considerably reworked in the 19th century. After the death of Robert Hawksworth the hall passed to his son Henry who was known to be living there in 1585 along with his mother. The Hawksworths were still in residence in the 1630s but by the early part of the 18th century the hall had become the property of the Gould family. The hall was extended during the latter part of the 19th century.Castle, Joe. ''A Look At Life In Bradfield Dale And The Surrounding Area'', J W Northend Ltd (2008), p. 50. . History of hall. The hall became the home of civil engineer

Charles Boot Charles Boot JP (1 October 1874 – 14 June 1945) was an English businessman and film producer who was the driving force behind the growth of Henry Boot & Sons in the inter-war period. As well as creating one of the largest contracting and hous ...

(1874–1945) early in the 20th century. Boot was the son of

Henry Boot Henry Boot (1851–1931) was the founder of Henry Boot PLC. Henry Boot was the eldest surviving son of Charles and Ann Boot. He was born on 9 December 1851 in Heeley, a small village two miles outside Sheffield. Henry's father had described him ...

and would become Chairman of Henry Boot Ltd. in 1921. Boot changed and extended the hall adding a tower and battlements designed by the architect E. Vincent Harris who was working on the construction of

Sheffield City Hall Sheffield City Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield, England in Barker's Pool, one of the city's central squares. It was built and is owned by Sheffield City Council but is now managed by the Sheffield City Trust, under a 99-year l ...

at the time. During his time at the hall Charles Boot constructed Boot's Folly to the north, overlooking Strines Reservoir. In the 1930s the Boot family moved to

Thornbridge Hall Thornbridge Hall is a large English country house situated near the village of Great Longstone in the local government district of Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire. It is a Grade II listed building. History From the 12th to the late 18th century ...

Great Longstone Great Longstone with Little Longstone is one of two villages in the local government district of Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire, England. The population (including Hassop and Rowland, but not Little Longstone) as taken at the 2011 Census was ...

although Charles' son Henry Matthew Boot continued to live at Bents House in the valley below Sugworth Hall until his death in 1974. During the 1980s and 1990s some of Sugworth Hall's outbuildings were converted to residential use.Redfern, Roger A. ''Portrait Of Bradfield Dale'', The Cottage Press (2005), p. 43. . History of hall.

Architecture

The hall is constructed from squared

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and gritstone with a stone slate roof with ashlar stacks. The earlier work on the house is judged to be of superior quality. The 20th-century tower on the west side has an embattled corner

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

and an oriel balcony.

References

{{SheffieldStructures Houses in Sheffield History of Sheffield Houses completed in the 16th century Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Peak District Buildings by Vincent Harris