Hugh Wood (10 January 1736 - 24 January 1814) was a landowner of Derbyshire gentry, and ran collieries in the small village of Swanwick. Hugh Wood notably owned Swanwick Hall (a villa build by architect, Joseph Pickford) from 1772 onwards, and knew many important Derbyshire people at the time.
Wood was born on 10th January 1736 to John and Martha Wood in Yellow’s Yard, Swanwick. He was raised alongside his two brothers, John (the eldest child) and Richard (the middle child), and lived at the Wood family home, a Jacobean farmhouse constructed in 1678, made of local stone. It is now 110, 112 and 114 Derby Road.
Hugh's brother, John, became vicar of Chesterfield in 1765 and the domestic chaplain to William Cavendish, the 5th Duke Of Devonshire, his home in Chatsworth, whilst Richard died young in 1759.
This meant that Hugh took on the family coal mining business.
Hugh married Sarah Rossington in 1769, [1] and in 1771, Wood commissioned Derbyshire architect, Joseph Pickford, to build a new villa, south east of Swanwick crossroads. It would be completed in 1772, the house would be three storeys high, speculated to have been five bays wide, and would be of handmade red brick, and minimal stone dressings made from gritstone, coming from the Horsley Castle Quarry, Coxbench.
He and his wife would move in, however, a year later, Sarah would die childless. Hugh remarried in March 1775, with his second wife being Mary Peake, [2] Sarah’s cousin. Hugh would have all three of his children with her, that being John (1776), Robert (1781) and Mary (1780s?). [1] [3]
In 1778, Wood served on the grand jury for the Court of quarter sessions, including assessing prisoners for some capital offences. [4]
Hugh, his wife, and their three children would be portrayed by Joseph Wright Of Derby in three large paintings from around 1789. [5] The picture of the three children used to hang in the dining hall of the house, but is now displayed at Pickford's House Museum, Derby. The portraits of Hugh and Mary were auctioned online for £70,000 by Sotheby’s in 2010. [5]
When extending his villa with a west wing in 1812, after the enclosure act of Swanwick, it would finally be given the name Swanwick Hall, due to a predecessor formerly belonging to the Turner family built in 1690, being demolished to make way for a new ‘Old Hall Farm’ on the site.
Also later in life, Hugh started to sell off his colliery land over to the Morewood family of Alfreton Hall, and the Oake Family of Riddings. His son, Rev. John Wood, would continue to do the same.
Hugh Wood died 24 January 1814, [6] and appeared on the Alfreton buried register on 1st February 1814.
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors travelling throughout Italy and reaching Rome during their "Grand Tour" led the artist to specialize in portraits.
Ripley is a market town and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England, northeast of Derby, northwest of Heanor, southwest of Alfreton and northeast of Belper. The town is continuous with Heanor, Eastwood and Ilkeston as part of the wider Nottingham Urban Area.
Alfreton is a town and civil parish in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, England. The town was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton parish was 8,799 at the 2021 Census. The villages of Ironville, Riddings, Somercotes and Swanwick were historically part of the Manor and Urban District, and the population including these was 24,476 in 2001.
Jedediah Strutt or Jedidiah Strutt – as he spelled it – was a hosier and cotton spinner from Belper, England.
Benjamin Outram was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
John Whitehurst FRS, born in Cheshire, England, was a clockmaker and scientist, and made significant early contributions to geology. He was an influential member of the Lunar Society.
The Little Eaton Gangway, officially the Derby Canal Railway, was a narrow gauge industrial wagonway serving the Derby Canal, in England, at Little Eaton in Derbyshire.
Swanwick is a village in Derbyshire, England, also a parish within the Amber Valley district, with a population of 5,316 at the 2001 census, falling to 5,084 at the 2011 Census. It has a number of shops, pubs and other businesses, a Church of St Andrews, as well as Methodist and Baptist churches. In the northern part of the parish an industrial estate on the former Swanwick Colliery site incorporates the Thornton's Confectionery factory along with other businesses. There is also a Christian conference centre, the largest in the UK. Now largely urbanised, the parish still has some remaining agricultural land to the north and west.
Joseph Pickford was an English architect that mostly worked within the English county of Derbyshire, and was one of the leading provincial architects in the reign of George III. The house he designed for himself in Derby is now the Pickford's House Museum.
Major-General Henry Gladwin was a British army officer in colonial America and the British commander at the Siege of Fort Detroit during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. He served in the disastrous campaign of Edward Braddock and in other actions in the French and Indian War but is best remembered for his defense of Detroit in Pontiac's Rebellion.
Alfreton Hall is a country house in Alfreton, Derbyshire. It was at the heart of local social and industrial history in the county. The history of the estate goes back to Norman times, but by the 17th century it was owned by the Morewood family, who were linked to local industry, mainly in coal mining.
Riddings is a large village in Derbyshire, England. The appropriate ward of the Amber Valley Council is called Ironville and Riddings. The population of this ward as at the 2011 census was 5,821. It is located 2 miles (3 km) south of Alfreton near the hamlet of Golden Valley. The name derives from Ryddynges, a clearing or riding in a wood. This was the ancient forest known as Alfreton Grove within the manor of Alfreton. The settlement goes back at least to the 12th century, when Hugh de Ryddynges received half of the manor of Riddings and half of Watnall from his relative Ralf Ingram of Alfreton.
William Tate was an English portrait painter who was a pupil and friend of Joseph Wright of Derby.
Swanwick Hall School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in Swanwick, Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. In 2004 Ofsted noted that the school had strong university links and had Training School status. It was formerly a country house belonging to the local Wood family.
Joseph Medworth a son of Simon Medworth (1723-1761), a ropemaker, and Anna Lampson was born in Wisbech in 1752. He was apprenticed as a brick-layer and moved to London. He returned as a successful developer and bought Thirloe's mansion.
William Tyler was an English sculptor, landscaper, and architect, and one of the three founding members of the Royal Academy, in 1768. He was Director of the Society of Artists.
Thomas Thoroton, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 25 years between 1757 and 1782.
Ellen Morewood or Ellen Goodwin; Ellen Goodwyn; Mrs. George Morewood; Mrs. Henry Case-Morewood was an English colliery owner based at Alfreton Hall in Derbyshire. She unsuccessfully defended her right to mine under land adjacent to hers and she carried forward the Morewood name.