Nostell Priory is a

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

house in Nostell,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England, near Crofton on the road to

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

from

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

. It dates from 1733, and was built for the Winn family on the site of a medieval priory. The Priory and its contents were given to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1953 by the trustees of the estate and Rowland Winn, 3rd Baron St Oswald.

History

Monastic history

The priory was a 12th-century Augustinian foundation, dedicated to St Oswald, supported initially by Robert de Lacy of

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

, and Thurstan of York. By about 1114, Aldulf, confessor to

Henry I of England Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in ...

, was

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be low ...

of a group of regular canons at Nostell. It is probable that Scone Abbey was founded by monks from Nostell. Sir John Field, the first Copernican Astronomer of note in England, is believed to have studied at Nostell in his youth under the tutelage of Prior Alured Comwn. As part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the priory was seized and depredated in 1540 and granted to Dr Thomas Leigh. Nostell was purchased in 1567 by Sir

Thomas Gargrave Sir Thomas Gargrave (1495–1579) was an English Knight who served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1565 and 1569. His principal residence was at Nostell Priory, one of many grants of land that Gargrave secured during his lifetime. He was Speak ...

, a High Sheriff of Yorkshire, Speaker of the House of Commons and president of the Council of the North from

James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy (c. 1533 – 1582) was an English peer. Life Blount was born circa 1533 in Barnstaple, Devon, the eldest son of Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy (1516–1544) and Ann Willoughby. He inherited his title on the de ...

, for £3,560. In 1613 Nostell was purchased by William Ireland who later, in 1629, sold the estate to Sir John Wolstenholme, 1st Baronet for £10,000. Nostell was then bought by the Winns from Wolstenholme who was bankrupted by debts he incurred to provide finance for the Royalist cause. Nostell Priory by Morris (1880)

Self-portrait Hesitating between the Arts of Music and Painting by Angelica Kauffmann

Later history

The estate was purchased in 1654 by the London alderman, Sir Rowland Winn, after its last owner, Sir John Wolstenholme, was declared bankrupt in 1650. Construction of the present house started in 1733, and the furniture, furnishings and decorations made for the house remain in situ. The Winns were textile merchants in London, George Wynne of Gwydir was appointed Draper to

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

, his grandson, Sir George Winn was created 1st Baronet of Nostell in 1660 and the family subsequently owed its wealth to the coal under the estate, and later from leasing land in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

for mining

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. The house was built by James Paine for Sir Rowland Winn 4th Bart on the site of a 12th-century

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

dedicated to Saint Oswald. Robert Adam was commissioned to design additional wings, only one of which was completed, and complete the staterooms. Adam added a double staircase to the front of the house, and designed buildings on the estate, including the stable block. Nostell Priory is home to a large collection of Chippendale furniture, all made for the house and commissioned by Sir Rowland Winn 5th Bart and his wife Sabine Winn. Thomas Chippendale was born in

Otley Otley is a market town and civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the population was 13,668 at the 20 ...

in 1718 and had workshops in St Martins Lane, London. The Nostell Priory art collection includes '' The Procession to Calvary'' by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, William Hogarth's '' Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest'' - the first depiction in a painting of any scene from Shakespeare's plays - and a self-portrait by

Angelica Kauffman Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, K ...

, as well as

Rowland Lockey Rowland Lockey (c. 1565–1616) was an English painter and goldsmith, and was the son of Leonard Lockey,Lewis, p. 8-9 a crossbow maker of the parish of St Bride's, Fleet Street, London. Lockey was apprenticed to Queen Elizabeth's miniaturist ...

's copy of the painting by Hans Holbein (c1527 but now lost) of ''

Sir Thomas More and Family ''Sir Thomas More and Family'' is a lost painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted circa 1527 and known from a number of surviving copies. The original was destroyed in 1752 in a fire at Schloss Kremsier ( Kroměříž Castle), the Moravi ...

''; this copy was commissioned in 1592 by the More family and came to Nostell in the 18th century, and is said to be the most faithful to the destroyed original. A

longcase clock A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are common ...

, with an almost completely wooden internal mechanism, made by

John Harrison John Harrison ( – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea. Harrison's solution revo ...

in 1717, is housed in the billiard room. Harrison, whose father Henry is thought to have been an estate carpenter, was born within half a mile of the estate. He was referred to as John "Longitude" Harrison, after devoting his life to solving the problem of finding

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...

at sea by creating an accurate marine timekeeper. Known as H4, this chronometer can be seen at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London. In August 1982 there was a music festival there, sponsored and organized by Theakston's Brewery which was a great success. Two years later in 1984, there was another festival organized by a different group of people. Although this event was a commercial festival, the " Convoy" was involved in organising a free festival next to it. Riot police were mobilised to suppress this aspect of the event. In May 2007, a set of Gillows furniture returned to the house after refurbishment. These pieces now furnish the

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

room, as do a pair of large

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

vases, made of wood inlaid with ivory and semi-precious stones. The Adam stable block has undergone a major renovation and is now open as a visitor centre for the house and parkland. In June 2009 a suite of bedrooms on the second floor was handed to the National Trust. These bedrooms used by the Winns, had never been on public view before. They contain the original contents, including a regency four-poster bed and suite of Victorian

bedroom furniture A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterised by its usage for sleeping and sexual activity. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds (ranging from a crib f ...

. Another room open to visitors is the butler's pantry, with a display of Winn family silver, in the adjacent strongroom cabinets.

Grounds

Nostell Priory occupies 121 hectares (300 acres) of parkland. Within the grounds and gardens are lakeside walks. The main facade of the house faces east towards a grass vista. Leading to the lake on the west side of the house is the west lawn. The parkland has lakeside and woodland walks, views of the druid's bridge and walks to the restored

Obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

Lodge, a parkland gatehouse, through wildflower meadows. The park was purchased from Lord St Oswald by the National Trust with funding from the Heritage Lottery fund. This grant enabled the trust to acquire pictures, books, and furniture from the family. The Obelisk Lodge was built in the 17th century and inhabited until the late 1950s. The main lawn and the lower fields to the east of the Priory have been used for various large and small events over the years, however, it was "Central Yorkshire Scout County" in 2000 that provided a fundamental change to how the grounds could be used. The organisation chose Nostell Priory as the site for its year 2000 "Millennium Camp", which was to attract around 2500 people from across the Yorkshire Scouting movement. During the 12-month preparation project to create temporary facilities and infrastructure, Yorkshire Water employee Jon Potter persuaded his employers to donate/install subterranean high-pressure water mains and stand-pipe points around the entire eastern grounds. This was unprecedented both in terms of a corporate donation and in its benefit to the Priory, which up to that point had been considering how they could self-fund exactly this improvement. In 2012 the BBC reported that planning permission had been granted for a new operating base for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. The new site, including a hangar and aircrew accommodation, was operational by summer 2013. It replaced the previous facility at Leeds/Bradford Airport.

References

External links