Shireoaks Hall is a Grade II* listed 17th-century country house in the hamlet of Shireoaks, north-west of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England.See: Sheffield City Archives (Arundel Castle Manuscripts): "Shireoaks deeds of the Hewitt family 1577–1659", ref. ACM/65260; "Shireoaks Manor, survey and particular 1600–1650", ref. ACM/W/185. Nottinghamshire Archives (Foljambe collections): "Notts (Shireoaks, etc) deeds and estate papers and Hewett family papers", ref. DD FJ (The National Archives (UK), Discovery Catalogue).
The modestly sized house was originally built for Thomas Hewett, probably by John Smythson (son of Robert Smythson), between 1612 and 1617. It was remodelled around 1700 and further restored in 1812 and again after 1975. It is built of coarse square rubble with a slate roof and stands in a rectangular , formerly open parkland with avenues of trees, fishponds and a deerpark, which is now enclosed as farmland.
The 17th and 18th-century landscaped park that surrounds the hall is Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
History The estate acquired The manor of Shireoaks was given to the Priory of Worksop by Emma de Lovetot, whose husband William de Lovetot founded the priory in 1105.'Houses of Austin canons: The Priory of Worksop', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Nottingham, Vol. 2 (V.C.H., London 1910), pp. 125–29 (British History Online). The Prior and convent leased the grange to Henry Ellis and his wife Dame Luce in 1458.R. White, Worksop, "The Dukery" and Sherwood Forest (1875), pp. 82–85 (Internet Archive). Facsimile of the 1458 lease, made 1751, following page 82. In August 1546, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII, the manor, lordship or grange, with appurtenances in Sherockes, Gytford and Derfold (Darfoulds), was granted to Robert and Hugh Thornhill of Walkeringham with licence to alienate it to Thomas Hewett, Clothworker of London.N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 2nd edn. revised by E. Williamson (Harmondsworth, 1979), p. 310. The National Archives, Discovery Catalogue: Conveyance of 1546, Sheffield City Archives, ACM/WD/559, 776, 777.J. Throsby (ed.), Thoroton's History of Nottinghamshire: Republished with Large Additions, 3 vols (B. and J. White, London 1797), III, pp. 400–01 (Google).'Grants in August 1546' in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 21 Part 1: January–August 1546 (HMSO, London 1908), no. 17, p. 762 and no. 35, pp. 767–68 (British History Online). At about the same time, Thomas Hewett had acquired the (already plundered) house and lands of Roche Abbey at Maltby, South Yorkshire (about north of Shireoaks), from which he could have recovered building stone.'1166. Grants in June, 1546: 73. Licences to alienate', in Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. 21 Part 1, p. 582 (British History Online). He kept Roche for 18 years until granted licence to alienate it to Richard Hunt of Manchester in January 1563/64.E. Milner, ed. E. Benham, Records of the Lumleys of Lumley Castle (George Bell and Sons, London 1904), p. 359 (Internet Archive).Calendar of Patent Rolls, Elizabeth I, Vol. III: 1563–1566 (HMSO 1960), p. 134, no. 571 (Internet Archive).
The brothers William and Thomas Hewett were born in the hamlet of Wales, in Laughton-en-le-Morthen, South Yorkshire, the sons of Edmund Hewett.R.E.C. Waters, Genealogical Memoirs of the Extinct Family of Chester of Chicheley, Their Ancestors and Descendants, 2 vols (Robson and Sons, London 1878), I, pp. 226–29. Around 1530 both became free of the newly chartered Company of Clothworkers in the city of London. William Hewett the Master of that Company in 1543–1544 (after he had purchased Harthill,Leeds Library, 'Deeds and related documents', YAS/DD5 Duke of Leeds Library Catalogue, ref. DD5/3 passim (Leeds Library pdf) and shortly before Thomas purchased Roche and Shireoaks), was Sheriff of London (with Thomas Offley) for 1553–1554 (Queen Mary's first year), and was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1559 (as Elizabeth I's reign was beginning). Sir William died in 1567, making his only daughter (Anne, wife of Sir Edward Osborne) heir to his lands at Wales and Harthill,Will of Sir William Huett, Alderman of London (P.C.C. 1567). Printed in full in D. Hewett, William Hewett, 1496–1566/7, Lord Mayor of London (Unicorn Publishing, London 2004), pp. 14–24. which became the core of the Kiveton Park estate of their descendants, the Dukes of Leeds.
Shireoaks manor had a special association with the ancient oak woodlands (part of Sherwood) which grew where the counties of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire met: the precise location was debated, but one enormous tree standing in the 18th century was said to overhang all three.J. Stacye (contributor), 'On the true site of the celebrated Shireoak' (Proceedings), Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XXX (1874), pp. 202–05 (Google).J. Evelyn, Sylva: Or, a Discourse of Forest-trees, and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions, Fifth Edition (London 1729), p. 202 (Google). In 1576 Thomas Hewett, who became a very prosperous London merchant, died leaving Shireoaks manor to his son Henry, also a citizen Clothworker.Will of Thomas Hewett, Clothworker of Saint Clement Eastcheap, City of London (P.C.C. 1576, Carew quire). Henry's brother William had received the parsonage of Dunton Bassett in Leicestershire, and lands at Mansfield, from his uncle: distinct branches of the family evolved. Henry died in 1598, leaving his "Manour, Lordshippe or Grange of Sherookes" to his eldest son and heir (Sir) Thomas Hewett.Will of Henry Hewett, Clothworker of Saint Mary Orgar, City of London (P.C.C. 1598, Lewyn quire). The "Grange" refers to the monastic manorial farmstead.
The first hall The construction of Shireoaks Hall as a more imposing residence on this site is credited to this Sir Thomas, grandson of the Clothworker Thomas. Before 1619 he conveyed the manor to William Wrottesley, presumably as a marital endowment.'Pardon to William Wrottesley', Sheffield City Archives, ref. ACM/WD/928 (The National Archives (UK), Discovery Catalogue). The design of the building is attributed to the architect John Smythson, son of Robert Smythson, and the date of the work probably between 1612 and 1617.M. Girouard, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (Yale University Press, New Haven 1983), pp. 134–38 and Pls. 74–75. (Original: Country Life 1966). Old heraldic arms were restored to Sir Thomas in 1618 by Richard St George.J. Foster, ed. W.H. Rylands, Grantees of Arms Named in Doquets and Patents to the End of the XVII Century Harleian Society LXVI (1915: Reprint by The Armorial Register Limited, 2016), p. 123 (Google), citing Harleian MS 1422 fol. 16, and B.M. Add. MS 5524, fol 206.
This was a substantial but compact rectangular structure built of Magnesian Limestone, its principal frontages facing south-west, to a prospect of the park and estates, and north-east overlooking a large enclosed rectangular terrace garden on the same lateral alignment, with the course of the river Ryton just beyond. Across the upper terrace next to the house a path aligned on the central axis of the house leads down a flight of steps to the main broad terrace, across this and beyond, to two further flights leading to narrower lower terraces towards the river.'Gardens and Pleasure grounds', in English Heritage, "Shireoaks Hall", Official Listing. The hall stands midway along the south-western edge of this garden, the perimeter walls enclosing a considerable area of land thought to have been laid out thus in the original phase of construction.N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 2nd Edition (Harmondsworth 1979), pp. 312–13.
The Sir Thomas Hewett, for whom this hall was built, resided at Shireoaks and became Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 1627. He lived long, through the English Civil War and the Commonwealth of England, and to see his son William Hewett married and the birth of a grandson Thomas Hewett in around 1656. However William died at about the same time as his father (which was in 1660–1661),Will (01/12/1659) of Sir Thomas Hewett of Shireoaks, Worksop, Proved Retford Deanery, 13 December 1661: Nottinghamshire Archives, ref. PR/NW 7245 (Nottingham County Council). and so the infant Thomas at four years of age became the heir to Shireoaks. He was taken to Shrewsbury (where his grandfather Sir Richard Prynce the younger (1598–1665) was yet living, at Whitehall mansion"Will of Sir Richard Prynce, 1666", in H.E. Forrest, 'Wills of the Prynce Family', Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society XLI Part 1 (1921), pp. 122–32, at pp. 126–28 (Society's pdf, at pp. 136–38)) for education, and during his minority the hall was occupied by the Earle family of Rampton.M. Doole, 'Sir Thomas Hewett, a man of Nottinghamshire and beyond', Thoroton Society Newsletter, Issue 94 (Winter 2018), pp. 4–6 (Thoroton Society online). Having matriculated at the University of Oxford in 1676,J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 (Oxford 1891), at 'Hawten-Hider', pp. 679–705 (British History Online). in 1677 he leased the hall for seven years to William and Richard Sanderson of Godford.Agreement of lease (1677), Sheffield City Archives, ref. ACM/WD/797 (The National Archives (UK), Discovery Catalogue).
Development: park and water-gardens This younger (Sir) Thomas Hewett, having completed his studies at Oxford, a term of service in the Yeomen of the Guard to Charles II, and some four or five years of travel in Europe, in 1689 married in Geneva and brought his young wife Frances home to Shireoaks.J. Holland, The History, Antiquities, and Description of the Town and Parish of Worksop (J. Blackwell, Sheffield 1826), pp. 176–77 (Google). Thomas settled the manor and premises in Shireoaks upon his marriage, by lease and release to Sir Edward Betenson, 2nd Bart., in 1692.University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections, Newcastle family of Clumber Park papers, ref. Ne 6 D 2/39/1 (Calm). He became a noted royal servant and official, Surveyor-General of Woods in 1701 and 1714 and Surveyor of the King's Works from 1719 until his death in 1726.Doole, 'Sir Thomas Hewett', (Thoroton Society online). Privately he made extensive alterations and improvements to his house and park at Shireoaks.H.M. Colvin (et al.), A History of the King's Works, Vol. V: 1660–1782 (HMSO 1976), pp. 71–73. His wife was a friend and correspondent of the young Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.'Supplement: Letters to Mrs. Hewet', in J. Dallaway (ed.), The Works of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Fifth Edition, 5 vols (Richard Phillips, London 1805), V, pp. 225–57 (Google).
In addition to the alterations of to the main house at Shireoaks, various built developments around the hall were carried out. A matching pair of two-storey rectangular outbuildings with steeply pitched hipped roofs, now called the East and West Stables (but with domestic fenestration), were built at the north approach to the hall, the space between them forming an entrance way.See images in: (HughieD), "Report: Shireoaks Manor, Nottinghamshire, July 2018", 28DL Urban Exploration (28DaysLater.co.uk) Two pools were developed to the north-east of these, enclosing the north-west boundary of the terraced garden. A canal pool, called the "Fountain Pool", was created below the north-east side of the terraces, long and wide, with a semicircular extension at the centre of the farther side (corresponding to the house axis), presumably the position of a fountain.Historic England Scheduled Monument: List entry number: 1021383 (Listing), 'Formal and water gardens at Shireoaks Hall'.
The canal garden