Worksop Manor
Worksop Manor before the fire of 1761. It was said to have had over 500 rooms.
There was a time when Worksop was one of the largest mansions in the north and the property of the Dukes of Norfolk
In the famous 12th century Priory Church in the town of Worksop, a few battered monumental knightly effigies tell part of the story of how the manor descended to the Norfolks. The Saxon lord was supplanted at the Conquest by Roger de Busli, one of the Conqueror's most favoured companions. The whole of Hallamshire was also his, but failing descendants, most of the de Busli properties went to their sub-tenants the de Lovetots and these included Worksop and Hallamshire. Matilda de Lovetot, the eventual heiress, was born in 1174 and married Gerard de Furnival, a Crusader who is said to have brought back the saplings of Cedars of Lebanon, the descendants of which still flourish at Worksop. Thomas de Furnival was summoned to Parliament as Baron Furnival in 1294.The Furnival heiress, Joan, married Sir Thomas Nevill, Baron Furnival in right of his wife. They had an only daughter and heiress, Maud Baroness Furnival, who inherited all the vast estates which had been held by the de Lovetots. She married an equally rich man, Sir John Talbot - the greatest captain of the English forces during the Hundred Years' War - Shakespeare's 'Valiant Talbot' '... hundreds he sent to Hell and none durst stand him ...' He was to become the first Earl of Shrewsbury and died fighting in France in 1453.
Thus the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury, inherited Worksop and Hallamshire and many other manors, becoming one of the most powerful noble families.
The 6th Earl of Shrewsbury was well known for his guardianship of Mary Queen of Scots and for being the fourth husband of Bess of Hardwick.
Within the boundaries of the Manor of Hallamshire was the town on the Rivers Sheaf and Don later to become the great city of Sheffield. The captive Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Lord Shrewsbury's Manor House there and when Lady Alathea Talbot, the 7th Earl's daughter, married Thomas, Earl of Arundel, grandfather of the 5th Duke of Norfolk, all the great estates once owned by the de Lovetots , Furnivals and Talbots passed to the Howards which accounts for names 'Howard', 'Arundel', 'Norfolk', and 'FitzAlan' for streets and squares in Sheffield and Rotherham to this day.
The 7th Earl of Shrewsbury entertained James VI in great style at the Manor on his way south to be crowned James I of England, and Charles I also visited the house.
In 1761, the enormous Elizabethan house, one of the largest in England with over 500 rooms and which had been built by the Shrewsbury's, was burnt to the ground together with £100,000 worth of works of art. The owner's, the 9th Duke of Norfolk and his wife who were childless, decided to rebuild for the benefit of their nephew Thomas Howard who would inherit. Unfortunately Thomas died prematurely in 1763 and his half brother Edward became the heir. The stricken Norfolks switched their affections to Edward and continued to rebuild Worksop in the Palladian style to designs by James Paine. When the North Wing was finished, great festivities took place as completion coincided with Edward's coming of age, but soon afterwards tragedy struck again and the young man died of measles. The Norfolks, shattered with grief, abandoned all further building. The completed North Wing was much bigger than many large country houses and had the whole project been completed, Worksop Manor would have been one of the largest private houses in Europe.
The subsequent Dukes of Norfolk concentrated on the restoration of Arundel Castle in Sussex and Worksop was left unfinished and uninhabited until the 12th Duke sold the property to the 4th Duke of Newcastle for £350,000. This put the Duke into financial difficulties and as he did not really need another large house so close to Clumber, he pulled down the huge North Wing and converted the staff accommodation into a modest house, which in 1890 the 7th Duke of Newcastle sold together with part of the estate to Sir Thomas Robinson, a distinguished breeder of thoroughbreds. Sir John's great nephew, Captain John Farr succeeded him and the Farr family still owned what remained of the estate, in the 1970s.
The Dukeries and Sherwood Forest
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