Cannon Hall is a country house museum located between the villages of Cawthorne and

High Hoyland High Hoyland is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England, on the border with West Yorkshire. It lies to the west of Kexbrough, and is located at approximately , at an elevation of around 20 ...

some 5 miles (8 km) west of

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Originally the home of the Spencer and later the Spencer-Stanhope family, it now houses collections of fine furniture, paintings, ceramics and glassware. It at one time housed the

Regimental Museum In countries whose armies are organised on a regimental basis, such as the army of the United Kingdom, a regimental museum is a military museum dedicated to the history of a specific army regiment. List of regimental museums in the UK In addition ...

of the

13th/18th Royal Hussars The 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed by the amalgamation of the 13th Hussars and the 18th Royal Hussars in 1922 and, after service in the Second World War, it amalgamated with ...

(Queen Mary's Own) and the Light Dragoons, which has now closed. Now occupying four rooms in the east wing is the "Family of Artists" exhibition on loan from the

De Morgan Foundation The De Morgan Foundation is a charity registered with The Charity Commission For England And Wales, Registered Charity No. 310004. The charitable objects of the Foundation are to safeguard, maintain and make available to the public the De Morg ...

, which draws on the links between the Spencer Stanhopes and the De Morgans. The building is constructed of coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings with a symmetrical layout of a central 3-storey block of 5 bays and slightly set back 2-storey side wings of 3 bays.

History

Although there was a house on the site when the

Domesday Survey 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 ...

of 1086 was conducted, Cannon Hall picked up its current name from the 13th-century inhabitant Gilbert Canun. By the late 14th century Cannon Hall was in the ownership of the Bosville family of Ardsley, now a suburb in south-east of

. It was during this period that the most violent event in Cannon Hall's history took place. The Bosvilles had let the Hall out to a family (whose name has been lost), the daughter of whom was romantically involved with a man named Lockwood. Lockwood had been involved in the murder of Sir John Elland, the

High Sheriff of Yorkshire The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere o ...

. The tenant, afraid of the position in which he could find himself accommodating a fugitive, sent word to Bosville. Bosville's men arrived at Cannon Hall, where the fugitive was slain in a cruel and violent manner. Cannon Hall's history settled down after this notably unpleasant episode. In 1660 the estate was purchased by John Spencer, a Welsh hay-rake maker. The Spencer family had arrived in Yorkshire from

Montgomeryshire , HQ= Montgomery , Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin= , Status= , Start= , End= ...

in the Welsh borders, a safer place than Wales for those with Royalist sympathies such as those of the Spencers (John Spencer even managed to get a pardon from Charles II himself when John was held in York prison on manslaughter charges). The Spencer family became active in the local iron and coal industry - notably under John Spencer (died 1729) who took advantage of the death of his partners to establish control. The family built a huge empire and funding the rebuilding of Cannon Hall. The core of the present Cannon Hall was built at the opening of the 18th century for John Spencer Stanhope, possibly by John Etty of York, more surely with interior joinery by William Thornton, another well-known local craftsman. It was enlarged with the addition of wings in 1764–67 by the premier mid-Georgian architect working in Yorkshire, John Carr. Subsequently, the wings were heightened, giving the rather high-blocked mass seen today. The last member of the family, Elizabeth, sold the house to Barnsley Council in 1951. Cannon Hall Museum opened to the public in 1957.

Current activities

Cannon Hall Museum, park and gardens is owned and operated by

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of ...

. The Hall has a programme of events, including the annual Regency Ball, a Christmas Fair each December and guided tours, workshops and children's activities throughout the year. A florist, plant and gift shop has also been recently established in the old potting shed outbuilding next to the walled garden.

Gardens and historic plant collection

The walled garden greenhouses - geograph

The parkland surrounding the hall was landscaped in the 18th century by Richard Woods of

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in t ...

, and features acres of parkland, lakes, waterfalls, follies and vistas. The Victorian pleasure grounds are located close to the Georgian walled garden, which houses a collection of over forty varieties of pear trees, among other plants. The central glasshouses rebuilt in the Victorian era also house the original Cannon Hall Muscat grapevine. Reputedly grown from a seed brought back from Greece by John Spencer Stanhope, the large white

table grape Table grapes are grapes intended for consumption while fresh, as opposed to grapes grown for wine production, juice production, or for drying into raisins. ''Vitis vinifera'' table grapes can be in the form of either seeded or non-seeded varieta ...

has been cultivated extensively in California and Western Australia (local spelling, Canon Hall Muscat) and has acted as rootstock for a number of premium hybrid cultivars including the Japanese Pione grape.

De Morgan Foundation

In March 2016, Cannon Hall Museum and the

, a registered charity preserving the work of William De Morgan and Evelyn De Morgan, entered into a collaboration which saw the opening of the "Family of Artists" long-term exhibition in the east wing of the Museum.

References and sources

;References ;Sources *

Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 ...

, ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840'' * History of Cawthorne, by Rev. Charles Tiplady Pratt (1882)

External links