Thorpe Salvin in 1900
The following extract from the Leeds Mercury details Thorpe Salvin as it was in 1900.
Thorpe Salvin is another singularly interesting village in the extreme corner of Yorkshire. Harthill is 2 miles away. Worksop, the capital of The Dukeries is 5 miles away, in Nottinghamshire.
The village may not be quite so pleasant as Harthill, but it is full of domestic quaintness and the sharply cut facade of the Sandford's castle makes as startling a picture as the old church makes a subdued one. Things move slowly here, new vicissitudes being tardy of approach.
Knowing this, imagine my surprise when a swain burst forth with a bit of Leslie Stuart - 'Soldiers of the Queen' a stirring strain which has evidently come to stay until times are less warlike. Quiet out of the way, Thorpe Salvin had, I found, sent its contribution of one young soldier to the War in South Africa. Had there been such a thing as an Inn in this village swains get imbued with a patrotic spirit - it is probable that Thorpe Salvin would have sent two or three or more. The old folk can remember the inns in their midst. There are still 3 at Harthill.
Salvin is a family name, Anketine and Osbert having a charter of warren here, in the Edwardian period. It seemed proper to this august family by whom the church was probably built, that the place should be in future known by their own name, so it willingly gave up its Roman birthright of Ryknieldthorpe.
The Sandford's followed the Salvins as Lords of the Manor. Hercy Sandford did not contemplate the early extinction of his family when he reconstructed the Elizabethan square built mansion, but he died early in life, and his only son before him.
A fine but sad picture is the principal facade of this ruined hall - locally termed 'the castle' , situated only about a hundred yards north from the church. It rivets the attention, and seems to have a sorrowful story quite different from any domestic memorial of the past that I have seen in Yorkshire; for the ruined manor house of the Tempests at Bracewell can scarcely be called picturesque.
One can tell that Oliver Cromwell had nothing to do with its ruin for the ruin is only 3 sided, and the front stands proud in its erectness, sharply cut, kept in excellent repair. Corner turrets add to its ornate appearance.
Daylight is visible through twelve unglazed windows. No doubt the aged place has witnessed many extravagent displays of feast and tournament. It has a spacious rectangular court and a square inner court, the gateway leading thereto having a chamber above for a porter. Several carved slabs, much mutilated, seem to show that the gateway was decorated with shields of arms intended to announce the ancestral pretensions of the proprietor.
The manor was purchased by Sir Edward Osborne from the representatives of the Sandfords in 1636, and he, the father of the 1st Duke of Leeds, died in this mansion, aged 50 on September 9 1647.
The 1st Duke spent much of his boyhood here and at Kiveton, was baptised in Thorpe Salvin church and afterwards purchasing the manor of Harthill on his own account when he had begun to court ambition.
One of his sons was born at the hall now in ruin. Why it was ever allowed to go to ruin I have not heard, for when the Dukes migrated from Kiveton to Hornby Castle, they took care to raze their ancestral abode to the ground.
If you ask what Thorpe Salvin is noted for today you will be told 'pidgens'. The birds run wild in the manor house facade and gateway. After a long and exciting chase 200 hundred birds had been caught only a few days before my arrival, and sent away to other counties for sport at shooting matches. The 'blue rocks' colonising this wall facade are wonderfully fine birds.
