On Sunday March 7th 2010 I made my first visit to Clumber Park, the former estate of the Dukes of Newcastle Under Lyne. I have driven past the two gates, set back some distance from the A 614 Nottingham Road a mile down from the A1 interchange, but failed to find out about the estate and the lost treasure of one the great houses of England, demolished in 1938 after being allowed to become derelict.
The A1 interchange has a traumatic memory for me because in the days before the building of the underpass, this was a major roundabout with roads to Nottingham and Sheffield and it was here one Sunday afternoon that my car broke down about half way to my destination, the family flat in Wallington where I was to stay overnight before journeying to a country house, Bletchley Park the former Wartime Intelligence centre, or somewhere similar for an induction week arranged by the Government for persons appointed as Directors of Social Services for the first time, and where I found myself among some very experienced chief officers, former Children’s and Chief Welfare Officers in the main.
I had used the new AA relay service only to find that when I was collected on one transporter vehicle I was taken to a staging area to another collection which then left me at a roundabout in thick fog just outside of London for several hours between 8pm and midnight to 1 am without food or drink, access to a toilet or a telephone. Worse was to follow because instead of the vehicle taking across London home I was taken to the Depot in North East London about as far from my destination within London as I could make it. It was six am before I was then driven to a garage in Wallington before being dropped off at the flat of my birth and care mothers. I arranged for the vehicle to be repaired when the garage opened, had a brief sleep before hiring a car to drive to the venue where I arrived in time for the introductions and evening meal followed by opening session. I wrote long angry letters to the A A and my Member of Parliament about what would have been the position if I had been with children or elderly relatives. The A A were rightly apologetic and promised to review the new system and in fairness I have nothing but an efficient and thoughtful service since, including the provision of a hire vehicle for three days
Clumber Park was originally monastic property as were vast tracks of England until it was acquired, one way or another, by the Monarchy and its nobles, in this instance as a hunting estate by John Holles the 4th Earl of Clare, the 3rd Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle Under Lyne. Despite its size, some 3800 acres, just under six square miles, in the Northern part of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, south of Worksop.
Sherwood Forest was never one vast Forest, but a series of woodlands with villages, farming and open land, and which even today occupies an area of 423 kilometres some 165 square miles and was in the Middle Ages the favoured hunting grounds for the monarchs of England. The first duke to acquire the property only built a hunting lodge, and it was his son, the Lord Lincoln, who decided to build one of his principal mansions. Later Dukes created the magnificent serpentine lake which covers 87 acres, just over a third of a square kilometre and with a walk around of some 4 miles just under six and half kilometres. The estate features a double line of lime trees some three miles in length, the longest such avenue in Europe.
I arrived at the National Trust Property just before the gates to the enclosed riverside pleasure park gardens were opened and already the car parks around the estate were beginning to fill up on what was proving a week of sunlit albeit cold days which appear to have now ended on arriving home. By the time I had undertaken a short walk along the lakeside, enjoyed a cup of coffee in the large restaurant area and visited the two small exhibitions, one on the history of the estate and the other on how the estate was used during World War II, vehicles were streaming in and fighting for a place in the central car park near the former location of the mansion.
Entrance is free to National Trust members but it costs £5 for one car load to make a single visit so for those with easy access membership of the Trust is an economic venture, especially as there is a programme of events throughout the year, including popular music concerts and theatrical productions, organised walks ranging from £4 to £10 for a family and a free once a week activity from Fungi spotting to growing sweet peas and broad beans or a perfect pumpkin. Although the Park is official closed on Christmas Day, a service with carols will be held this year at 10a, in the Gothic Chapel.
From the National Trust site it is possible to down load a map and details of a 1.5 mile walk which goes Lake side through the designed pleasure gardens with many flowering shrubs and yet to appear spring bulbs and which continues to Ash Tree Hill Wood and then back to the Walled Kitchen garden, Conservation area, Chapel, entrance facilities and main car park. For those able to undertaken longer trek or hire a cycle, there is a five mile route around the lake which includes Hardwicke Village within the estate.
I looked up a site offering residential, agricultural and Forest land in Nottinghamshire. A woodland of some 17.5 acres is presently available for £130000 which would make the land of the estate presently worth around £30million. In its heyday more 100 people were employed on the estate and even to day I would not be surprised if there are a score employed for the Park, on the gate, in the restaurant, shop and exhibition as well as in the maintenance of the estate in addition to those employed at the regional office of the Trust which is also based in the available buildings.
The first Duke to acquire the property was in fact the nephew of the Duke of Newcastle and a man of property in his own right with land in Middlesex and Lincolnshire as well as Nottingham. When his father died, the Baron Pelham, he inherited more land so that by the time he acquired Clumber and built the hunting lodge he had property in 11 counties and controlled a number of Parliamentary constituencies. It was through his political support for the Whig party that be became Earl of Clare and then took over as Duke of Northumberland for the Tyne in addition to being the first of Lyne through his political manipulations. He then held office effectively running the country with his brother in the Commons as the first Lord of the Treasury and he as Foreign Minister and Chamberlain of the Royal Household.
It was then second son of Earl Lincoln brother to the Duke who inherited the title and the estate following the death of his father and elder brother. He was instrumental in establishing the park as more than a hunting ground. He became estranged from his third son who inherited the title although the wealth of his father had been significantly passed to his eldest grand son. Thomas was only the Duke for a year but he had married with four children his eldest son came to the title and estate, The 4th Duke who came to the title when he was only 10 and at Eton became a staunch conservative, opposed to Catholic emancipation and electoral reform. He did not have a happy life estranged from his mother and children, his wife dying from childbirth after their 11th child.
The 5th Duke 1811-1864 was a contemporary of Gladstone at Oxford and persuaded his father to allocate the Parliamentary seat of Newark to his friend. And he also had a friendship with Sir William Peel. As appears to have become a historical problem, eh had a strained relationship with his father and his marriage ended in divorce. His wife had a child by Sir Horace Walpole before marrying someone from Brussels.
The sixth Duke briefly was the Member of Parliament for Newark but otherwise his interest was in Freemasonry where he held the office of Grand Master of Nottinghamshire for twelve years.
He was a great gambler losing a fortune and for a time was forced to leave the country in disgrace because he failed to pay his gambling debts. His solution was to marry money and his father in law settled the debts and provide an annual income of several million pounds in today’s values. Although his father in law left a fortune in estates to his son in law he ensured that the man could not control their management or dispose them.
This meant that that the 7th Duke 1864 1928 who came to the title when he was 15 and at Eton was able to devote himself to rebuilding the house after it was destroyed by fire, to the building of the Church of St Mary the Virgin and the creation of the Clumber Choir School, despite suffering lifelong ill health from a fall in childhood. He was also a major figure in the Anglo Catholic Church of his day and this subject is said to be the only cause for him to attend the House of Lords and make a speech.
The 8th Duke 1866-1941 followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, incurring vast debts which led to the selling of the internationally known family heirloom, the Hope Diamond which now is held by the Smithsonian Institute and said to be worth £175 million. The infamous squandering of the Duke led to the selling off great parts of the family estate, including the contents of Clumber House which was left into disrepair. His first wife was a singer and a dancer and they divorced after 8 years with no children. He had three children by his second wife who died shortly after the birth of her third child.
The 9th Duke appears to have been a man of a different calibre who fought in second World War, becoming a Squadron Leader and retiring subsequently as a Wing Commander. During his war service Clumber Park became one of the biggest ammunition dumps in the UK with the estate filled with small storage constructions set apart from each other among the trees. The estate was also used for the building and testing of a monster trench digger intended to forge a path behind enemy lines, However Churchill who supported the project and saw the testing of the completed vehicle never put the machine into production because the nature of war had quickly changed from that of the first. The Duke was married three times, with two daughters by his second wife. The title therefore went to another relative. A cousin who also served with distinction in the second world war as a Captain in Royal Artillery. He remained unmarried and therefore the title became extinct.
The family which had originally held the title of Earl of Lincoln is represented among the British Aristocracy to this day by the 19th Earl, who is the grandson of an Australian manual worker after he had retired.
On one hand I regret the destruction of the great house and the selling of its many treasures which included a dining table capable of accommodating 150 seated guests filling the rooms and others with the work of Rubens, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Reynolds, Van Dyke, Poussin, Rembrandt, Titian, Brueghel and Holbein. Among the rare books was first folio of William Shakespeare, three Caxton Bibles and a Book of Hours together with a large collection of statues, busts and china. On the other hand the family had guarded their estate from public interest. However the contents appears to have fallen into private collections and they no longer have become objects to be look at, touched, read and enjoyed but locked in vaults to appear on balance sheets and insurance records. At least the ground remain with the nation be enjoyed for a modest individual contribution. I hope to return and so some good walking.
The A1 interchange has a traumatic memory for me because in the days before the building of the underpass, this was a major roundabout with roads to Nottingham and Sheffield and it was here one Sunday afternoon that my car broke down about half way to my destination, the family flat in Wallington where I was to stay overnight before journeying to a country house, Bletchley Park the former Wartime Intelligence centre, or somewhere similar for an induction week arranged by the Government for persons appointed as Directors of Social Services for the first time, and where I found myself among some very experienced chief officers, former Children’s and Chief Welfare Officers in the main.
I had used the new AA relay service only to find that when I was collected on one transporter vehicle I was taken to a staging area to another collection which then left me at a roundabout in thick fog just outside of London for several hours between 8pm and midnight to 1 am without food or drink, access to a toilet or a telephone. Worse was to follow because instead of the vehicle taking across London home I was taken to the Depot in North East London about as far from my destination within London as I could make it. It was six am before I was then driven to a garage in Wallington before being dropped off at the flat of my birth and care mothers. I arranged for the vehicle to be repaired when the garage opened, had a brief sleep before hiring a car to drive to the venue where I arrived in time for the introductions and evening meal followed by opening session. I wrote long angry letters to the A A and my Member of Parliament about what would have been the position if I had been with children or elderly relatives. The A A were rightly apologetic and promised to review the new system and in fairness I have nothing but an efficient and thoughtful service since, including the provision of a hire vehicle for three days
Clumber Park was originally monastic property as were vast tracks of England until it was acquired, one way or another, by the Monarchy and its nobles, in this instance as a hunting estate by John Holles the 4th Earl of Clare, the 3rd Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle Under Lyne. Despite its size, some 3800 acres, just under six square miles, in the Northern part of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, south of Worksop.
Sherwood Forest was never one vast Forest, but a series of woodlands with villages, farming and open land, and which even today occupies an area of 423 kilometres some 165 square miles and was in the Middle Ages the favoured hunting grounds for the monarchs of England. The first duke to acquire the property only built a hunting lodge, and it was his son, the Lord Lincoln, who decided to build one of his principal mansions. Later Dukes created the magnificent serpentine lake which covers 87 acres, just over a third of a square kilometre and with a walk around of some 4 miles just under six and half kilometres. The estate features a double line of lime trees some three miles in length, the longest such avenue in Europe.
I arrived at the National Trust Property just before the gates to the enclosed riverside pleasure park gardens were opened and already the car parks around the estate were beginning to fill up on what was proving a week of sunlit albeit cold days which appear to have now ended on arriving home. By the time I had undertaken a short walk along the lakeside, enjoyed a cup of coffee in the large restaurant area and visited the two small exhibitions, one on the history of the estate and the other on how the estate was used during World War II, vehicles were streaming in and fighting for a place in the central car park near the former location of the mansion.
Entrance is free to National Trust members but it costs £5 for one car load to make a single visit so for those with easy access membership of the Trust is an economic venture, especially as there is a programme of events throughout the year, including popular music concerts and theatrical productions, organised walks ranging from £4 to £10 for a family and a free once a week activity from Fungi spotting to growing sweet peas and broad beans or a perfect pumpkin. Although the Park is official closed on Christmas Day, a service with carols will be held this year at 10a, in the Gothic Chapel.
From the National Trust site it is possible to down load a map and details of a 1.5 mile walk which goes Lake side through the designed pleasure gardens with many flowering shrubs and yet to appear spring bulbs and which continues to Ash Tree Hill Wood and then back to the Walled Kitchen garden, Conservation area, Chapel, entrance facilities and main car park. For those able to undertaken longer trek or hire a cycle, there is a five mile route around the lake which includes Hardwicke Village within the estate.
I looked up a site offering residential, agricultural and Forest land in Nottinghamshire. A woodland of some 17.5 acres is presently available for £130000 which would make the land of the estate presently worth around £30million. In its heyday more 100 people were employed on the estate and even to day I would not be surprised if there are a score employed for the Park, on the gate, in the restaurant, shop and exhibition as well as in the maintenance of the estate in addition to those employed at the regional office of the Trust which is also based in the available buildings.
The first Duke to acquire the property was in fact the nephew of the Duke of Newcastle and a man of property in his own right with land in Middlesex and Lincolnshire as well as Nottingham. When his father died, the Baron Pelham, he inherited more land so that by the time he acquired Clumber and built the hunting lodge he had property in 11 counties and controlled a number of Parliamentary constituencies. It was through his political support for the Whig party that be became Earl of Clare and then took over as Duke of Northumberland for the Tyne in addition to being the first of Lyne through his political manipulations. He then held office effectively running the country with his brother in the Commons as the first Lord of the Treasury and he as Foreign Minister and Chamberlain of the Royal Household.
It was then second son of Earl Lincoln brother to the Duke who inherited the title and the estate following the death of his father and elder brother. He was instrumental in establishing the park as more than a hunting ground. He became estranged from his third son who inherited the title although the wealth of his father had been significantly passed to his eldest grand son. Thomas was only the Duke for a year but he had married with four children his eldest son came to the title and estate, The 4th Duke who came to the title when he was only 10 and at Eton became a staunch conservative, opposed to Catholic emancipation and electoral reform. He did not have a happy life estranged from his mother and children, his wife dying from childbirth after their 11th child.
The 5th Duke 1811-1864 was a contemporary of Gladstone at Oxford and persuaded his father to allocate the Parliamentary seat of Newark to his friend. And he also had a friendship with Sir William Peel. As appears to have become a historical problem, eh had a strained relationship with his father and his marriage ended in divorce. His wife had a child by Sir Horace Walpole before marrying someone from Brussels.
The sixth Duke briefly was the Member of Parliament for Newark but otherwise his interest was in Freemasonry where he held the office of Grand Master of Nottinghamshire for twelve years.
He was a great gambler losing a fortune and for a time was forced to leave the country in disgrace because he failed to pay his gambling debts. His solution was to marry money and his father in law settled the debts and provide an annual income of several million pounds in today’s values. Although his father in law left a fortune in estates to his son in law he ensured that the man could not control their management or dispose them.
This meant that that the 7th Duke 1864 1928 who came to the title when he was 15 and at Eton was able to devote himself to rebuilding the house after it was destroyed by fire, to the building of the Church of St Mary the Virgin and the creation of the Clumber Choir School, despite suffering lifelong ill health from a fall in childhood. He was also a major figure in the Anglo Catholic Church of his day and this subject is said to be the only cause for him to attend the House of Lords and make a speech.
The 8th Duke 1866-1941 followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, incurring vast debts which led to the selling of the internationally known family heirloom, the Hope Diamond which now is held by the Smithsonian Institute and said to be worth £175 million. The infamous squandering of the Duke led to the selling off great parts of the family estate, including the contents of Clumber House which was left into disrepair. His first wife was a singer and a dancer and they divorced after 8 years with no children. He had three children by his second wife who died shortly after the birth of her third child.
The 9th Duke appears to have been a man of a different calibre who fought in second World War, becoming a Squadron Leader and retiring subsequently as a Wing Commander. During his war service Clumber Park became one of the biggest ammunition dumps in the UK with the estate filled with small storage constructions set apart from each other among the trees. The estate was also used for the building and testing of a monster trench digger intended to forge a path behind enemy lines, However Churchill who supported the project and saw the testing of the completed vehicle never put the machine into production because the nature of war had quickly changed from that of the first. The Duke was married three times, with two daughters by his second wife. The title therefore went to another relative. A cousin who also served with distinction in the second world war as a Captain in Royal Artillery. He remained unmarried and therefore the title became extinct.
The family which had originally held the title of Earl of Lincoln is represented among the British Aristocracy to this day by the 19th Earl, who is the grandson of an Australian manual worker after he had retired.
On one hand I regret the destruction of the great house and the selling of its many treasures which included a dining table capable of accommodating 150 seated guests filling the rooms and others with the work of Rubens, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Reynolds, Van Dyke, Poussin, Rembrandt, Titian, Brueghel and Holbein. Among the rare books was first folio of William Shakespeare, three Caxton Bibles and a Book of Hours together with a large collection of statues, busts and china. On the other hand the family had guarded their estate from public interest. However the contents appears to have fallen into private collections and they no longer have become objects to be look at, touched, read and enjoyed but locked in vaults to appear on balance sheets and insurance records. At least the ground remain with the nation be enjoyed for a modest individual contribution. I hope to return and so some good walking.
