Nostell Priory is a Palladian house in Nostell, West Yorkshire, England, near Crofton on the road to Doncaster from Wakefield. It dates from 1733, and was built for the Winn family on the site of a medieval priory. [1] The Priory and its contents were given to the National Trust in 1953 by the trustees of the estate and Rowland Winn, 3rd Baron St Oswald.
The priory was a 12th-century Augustinian foundation, dedicated to St Oswald, supported initially by Robert de Lacy of Pontefract, and Thurstan of York. [2] By about 1114, Aldulf, confessor to Henry I of England, was prior of a group of regular canons at Nostell. [3] It is probable that Scone Abbey was founded by monks from Nostell. [4]
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. [5]
As part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the priory was seized and depredated in 1540 and granted to Dr Thomas Leigh. [6] [7] Nostell was purchased in 1567 by Sir Thomas Gargrave, a High Sheriff of Yorkshire, Speaker of the House of Commons and president of the Council of the North [8] from James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy, for £3,560. [9] 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 [10] who was bankrupted by debts he incurred to provide finance for the Royalist cause.
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, his grandson, Sir George Winn was created 1st Baronet of Nostell in 1660. In the nineteenth century the family prospered from the exploitation of coal under the Nostell estate, and later from leasing land at Scunthorpe after iron ore deposits were found by Rowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald in 1858; Winn subsequently played an important role in the construction of the Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway and the development of the Lincolnshire iron industry (from 1864) and steel industry (from 1891). [11]
The house was built by James Paine for Sir Rowland Winn 4th Bart on the site of a 12th-century priory 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.[ citation needed ]
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. [12] Thomas Chippendale was born in Otley 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, as well as Rowland Lockey's copy of the painting by Hans Holbein (c1527 but now lost) of Sir Thomas More and Family ; 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. [13]
A longcase clock, with an almost completely wooden internal mechanism, made by John Harrison 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 at sea by creating an accurate marine timekeeper. Known as H4, this chronometer can be seen at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London.[ citation needed ]
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. [14]
In May 2007, a set of Gillows furniture returned to the house after refurbishment. These pieces now furnish the tapestry room, as do a pair of large Venetian vases, made of wood inlaid with ivory and semi-precious stones.[ citation needed ]
The Adam stable block has undergone a major renovation and is now open as a visitor centre for the house and parkland.[ citation needed ]
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. Another room open to visitors is the butler's pantry, with a display of Winn family silver, in the adjacent strongroom cabinets.
Nostell Priory occupies 121 hectares (300 acres) of parkland. [15] 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 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.[ citation needed ]
The Obelisk Lodge was built in the 17th century and inhabited until the late 1950s. [16]
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 [17] 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.[ citation needed ]
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. [18]
Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779) was a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director—the most important collection of furniture designs published in England to that point which created a mass market for furniture—upon which success he became renowned. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, "so influential were his designs, in Britain and throughout Europe and America, that 'Chippendale' became a shorthand description for any furniture similar to his Director designs".
Baron St Oswald, of Nostell in the West Riding of the County of York, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for the industrialist and Conservative politician Rowland Winn, a former Member of Parliament for North Lincolnshire. His son, the second Baron, represented Pontefract in the House of Commons. His grandson, the fourth Baron, held junior ministerial positions in the Conservative administrations of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home and also sat as a Member of the European Parliament. As of 2017 the title is held by the latter's nephew, the sixth Baron, who succeeded his father in 1999.
Anglesey Abbey is a National Trust property in the village of Lode, 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Cambridge, England. The property includes a country house, built on the remains of a priory, 98 acres of gardens and landscaped grounds, and a working mill.
Lord Headley, Baron Allanson and Winn, of Aghadoe in the County of Kerry, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1797 for Sir George Allanson-Winn, 1st Baronet, a former Baron of the Court of the Exchequer and Member of Parliament for Ripon. He had already been created a Baronet, of Little Warley in the County of Essex, in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 14 September 1776. His son, Charles Winn-Allanson, 2nd Baron Headley, represented Ripon, Malton and Ludgershall in Parliament. In 1833 he succeeded a distant relative as 8th Baronet, of Nostel. His nephew, the third Baron, sat in the House of Lords as an Irish Representative Peer from 1868 to 1877. His son, the fourth Baron, was an Irish Representative Peer from 1883 to 1913. His cousin, Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley, was a prominent convert to Islam. On the death in 1994 of the latter's younger son, Charles Allanson-Winn, 7th Baron Headley, the titles became extinct.
Rowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald was an English industrialist and Conservative Party politician.
Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest, also known as Ferdinand courting Miranda is an oil painting by the English painter William Hogarth. It has been displayed at Nostell Priory since 1766, and was acquired by the National Trust in 2002. The National Trust claims that it is "the first known painting of a scene from Shakespeare".
Crofton is a village in West Yorkshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) south-east of Wakefield, some 6 miles (10 km) to the west of the town of Pontefract, and 4 miles (6 km) from the town of Featherstone. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 5,781.
Rowland Lockey was an English painter and goldsmith, and was the son of Leonard Lockey, a crossbow maker of the parish of St Bride's, Fleet Street, London. Lockey was apprenticed to Queen Elizabeth's miniaturist and goldsmith Nicholas Hilliard for eight years beginning Michaelmas 1581 and was made a freeman or master of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths by 1600.
Rowland Denys Guy Winn, 4th Baron St Oswald,, was a British soldier and Conservative politician.
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 Speaker of the House of Commons and vice president of the Council of the North.
Sir Cotton Gargrave (1540–1588) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1571 and 1572.
Manor House, 21 Soho Square is a Grade II listed building in the West End of London. It has 17th-century origins but the existing structure dates from 1838. It was originally built in 1678 as a townhouse but through its history has also been a notorious brothel, the headquarters of Crosse & Blackwell and is now an office building.
Olive, Lady Baillie was an Anglo-American heiress, landowner and hostess. She is best known as the owner of Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, Kent, England. On her death the castle was bequeathed to a charitable trust to enable it to be open to the public.
Portrait of Sir Thomas More is an oak panel painting commissioned in 1527 of Thomas More by the German artist and printmaker Hans Holbein the Younger, now in the Frick Collection in New York.
George Allanson-Winn, 1st Baron Headley, known as Sir George Allanson-Winn, Bt, between 1776 and 1797, was a British barrister, judge and politician.
Hirst Priory is an 18th-century country house in Belton on the Isle of Axholme, North Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. The current house was built on the site of a 12th-century Augustinian priory.
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.
Nathaniel Cholmley was a British Member of Parliament.
Huntwick with Foulby and Nostell is a civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. In the parish were 34 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, three are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The most important building is Nostell Priory, which is listed, together with associated buildings, and structures in the surrounding park. The other major building is the Church of St. Michael and Our Lady, which is also listed, together with monuments in its churchyard. The other listed buildings are houses, cottages, farmhouses and farm buildings, and a bridge.
Media related to Nostell Priory at Wikimedia Commons