The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Norton House, Norton

‭‬For any reader who missed my description of Greenhill Hall‭, ‬I ought to repeat that although Norton is today a fully integrated suburb of Sheffield‭, ‬this has only been the case since 1936‭, ‬when the Sheffield Council‭, ‬greedy to boost rate income‭, ‬managed‭ ‬to obtain a large chunk of NE Derbyshire during the local government boundary review of the year before‭.‬

Not that it means that Norton wasn’t already effectively a suburb of Sheffield‭, ‬not a bit of it‭; ‬that situation was effectively achieved by the 1890s‭, ‬and indeed the village and very extensive parish always looked to Sheffield rather than Chesterfield or Derby‭. ‬Because the parish included several townships with separate manorial estates‭, ‬there were also quite a number of country houses‭, ‬of which the Hall survives‭, ‬most recently as flats along with The Oaks‭. ‬Several others have gone‭, ‬including Norton House‭, ‬although there is a replacement on‭ ‬the same site‭.‬

If you refer to Samuel and Daniel Lysons’‭ ‬History of Derbyshire‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬volume five of their incomplete‭ ‬magnum opus‭, ‬Magna Britannia‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬you will find that Norton House‭ ‬‘was supposed to have been built by the Morewoods’‭ ‬a claim I find it difficult to substantiate‭; ‬for the story is a long and complex one‭.‬

The house that survived into the age of photography‭, ‬and was photographed by Richard Keene of Derby sometime in the early 1860s‭,‬‭ ‬had a seventeenth century core‭, ‬resulting in an H-shaped plan‭. ‬It was constructed of two storeys and attics of local coal measures sandstone ashlared into thinnish blocks with smooth dressings of millstone grit‭. ‬The central section was recessed between the two wings under straight coped gables‭, ‬and the house was somewhat similar in build to Carnfield Hall near Alfreton‭. ‬The windows were mullioned‭ (‬and probably transomed‭).‬

Inside there were oak pannelled rooms‭, ‬some very richly carved‭, ‬with a number of Sheffield school decorated plaster ceilings‭, ‬that in the dining room being of six compartments with a different decorative motif in each‭. ‬One chimneypiece bore a similarly styled decorated plaster overmantel bearing the armorial crest and initials of Leonard Gill and the date 1623‭, ‬which we may reasonably take to be the date of building‭, ‬although there had been a previous house on the site‭. ‬This had been acquired and built by the family of Bishop Geoffrey Blythe‭, ‬one of eight sons of William Blythe of Norton Lees‭, ‬who had bought the site from the Babington family‭. ‬Quote how it came to the Gills is‭, ‬however‭, ‬unclear‭, ‬for the Bishop sold the estate to Chesterfield apothecary Richard Wood‭. ‬Presumably his successor sold it on to the Gills‭.‬

We get some idea of the appearance of this original house from a drawing in Chantrey Land‭, ‬presumably done in the nineteenth century‭, ‬showing wide gables on the projecting wings of the north front and mullioned windows on the principal floors with enhanced‭ (‬raised‭) ‬transoms‭, ‬with string courses along their tops‭. ‬

In the civil war period‭, ‬Gill died‭, ‬leaving a widow who had a life’s interest in the house and paid tax on six hearths in 1670‭, ‬and an only daughter‭, ‬who was married to Rowland Morewood of Oakes‭ ‬Park‭, ‬nearby‭, ‬hence the Lysons’‭ ‬remarks‭. ‬But when he died in 1658‭, ‬his son and heir‭, ‬John‭ (‬married to Leonard Gill’s great niece Elizabeth‭) ‬went to live at Alfreton Hall‭, ‬whilst his brother took on Oakes Park so‭, ‬on Mrs‭. ‬Gill’s death the house and its estate were sold to Samuel Hallowes‭, ‬High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1674‭. ‬But‭, ‬as we saw in October’s‭ ‬Lost Houses‭, ‬he was living happily at Glapwell Hall‭, ‬and his son Thomas sold Norton House once again to the Radcliffes from whom it passed‭ ‬in short order to the Bramhalls who sold it to John Wingfield of Hazelbarrow Hall‭ (‬another lost house in Norton parish‭) ‬in 1712‭ ‬in order for him to endow his daughter Margaret with it on her marriage that year to Robert Newton of Mickleover‭. ‬

Mickleover then had no seat‭ (‬the Old Hall having found its way into the hands of the Cotchetts‭) ‬and so Newton established himself at Norton House and decided to modernize it‭, ‬most of which effort was directed at the south‭ (‬garden‭) ‬front‭. ‬He removed the gables and replaced the attics with a half storey and a plain parapet above‭. ‬The doorcase was given an open pediment on brackets originally with a swagger coat-of-arms in the gap‭, ‬and the windows were all sashed‭, ‬and given moulded stone surrounds‭, ‬that above‭ ‬the doorcase indeed acquiring a somewhat more elaborate treatment‭. ‬The central attic window was an‭ ‬oeil-de-boeuf‭ ‬set in an oval surround with four keyblocks‭. ‬The original string courses were mainly suffered to remain‭, ‬and the sashes did not‭ ‬extend to the north front‭.‬

We do not know the identity of the architect‭. ‬Whilst one might suspect a man from Sheffield being brought in‭, ‬it is important to‭ ‬bear in mind that Newton had connections further south‭, ‬and two other country houses in Derbyshire have the same style of pedimented doorcase and‭ ‬oeil-de-boeuf‭ ‬above‭: ‬Wheston Hall‭, ‬Tideswell‭ (‬mainly demolished‭, ‬see‭ ‬Country Images‭ ‬November 2014‭) ‬and Winster Hall still‭, ‬thankfully‭, ‬extant and lived in by appreciative owners‭. ‬We do not know for sure who designed either of them‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬most likely it was John Barker of Rowsley‭ (‬1668-1727‭) ‬‮–‬‭ ‬except that it looks very much as if they are all‭ ‬by the same hand‭. ‬All date from exactly the right period‭, ‬too‭. ‬

Until the death of the bachelor son‭, ‬Robert‭, ‬the Newtons occupied the house longer than anyone else‭, ‬I suspect‭. ‬However‭, ‬as by 1789‭ ‬Newton had acquired Bearwardcote Hall as well‭, ‬he left his southerly estates to his nephew Robert Leaper‭ (‬later Robert Newton‭) ‬Mickleover‭, ‬and a life’s interest in Norton House to three other kinsmen all kin to his mother‭: ‬William Cunliffe-Shaw‭ (‬great-grandfather of R‭. ‬Cunliffe‭ ‬Shawe FSA‭, ‬author of that classic of Dark Age arcana‭, ‬The Men of the North‭) ‬his father Joseph and great-grand-daughter Harriet‭, ‬daughter of Wingfield Wildman whose mother was William Cunliffe Shawe’s daughter Priscilla‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬all tortuous and confusing to say the least‭!‬

None of this motley crew of heirs lived anywhere near and so they installed as tenant John Read‭, ‬later of Derwent Hall‭ (‬see July‭ ‬2016‭!). ‬Later Norton House was sold to the picturesquely named local businessman‭, ‬Thomas Beard Holy‭ (‬1798-1867‭), ‬whose grandfather had made a fortune in Sheffield as a button maker‭. ‬He added a new‭, ‬rather ugly‭, ‬canted bay with clunky parapet to the left side of the house and can be seen in the garden of the house with his wife‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬a grand-daughter of Queen Charlotte’s garden designer‭, ‬Rev’d Christopher Alderson‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬towards the left in Keene’s photograph‭. ‬After they had died‭, ‬Holy’s heir John Unwin sold the house‭, ‬stripped of its modest estate‭, ‬‘to a person from Lancashire’‭ ‬who had apparently demolished it by 1877‭ ‬for the materials‭: ‬a considerable loss‭. ‬

The site of the house eventually came into the hands of another businessman‭, ‬Edward Montagu Earle Welby JP‭ (‬1836-1926‭), ‬wealthy‭ ‬fourth son of Sir Glynne Welby 3^rd‭ ‬Bt‭. ‬MP of Denton‭, ‬Lincolnshire‭, ‬who built around 1882‭ ‬what appears to all intents and purposes to be a brand new house of two storeys‭, ‬five rather narrow bays wide under a high hipped roof supported on a cavetto cornice‭. ‬The upper windows are mullion-and‭-‬transom cross ones‭, ‬but sashes on the ground floor‭, ‬albeit with plate glass‭. ‬

Yet‭, ‬when I saw it‭, ‬something very familiar struck me‭: ‬the doorcase was the original one from old Norton House and the stone surrounds of the ground floor windows looked very much as if they‭, ‬too‭, ‬were rescued from it‭. ‬Then‭, ‬too‭, ‬the walls are of the same‭ ‬thin ashlar blocks as the originals and the dressings also in the same grit-stone‭. ‬Even the upper windows are of the same mullion and enhanced transom cross type that survived on the north front of the old house‭, ‬and the quoins‭, ‬likewise‭, ‬look very familiar‭.‬

What appears to have happened is that the‭ ‬‘person from Lancashire’‭ ‬most likely just stripped the house out‭, ‬or gutted or even part demolished it before Mr‭, ‬Welby came along and had a good Sheffield architect‭ (‬we do not know whom‭) ‬design a new house in Queen Anne Revival style‭, ‬incorporating as much as possible of what was left of its predecessor‭.‬

After the Welbys left in 1926‭, ‬the house had a chequered history before being bought by a consortium of local people who established a country club there in 1945‭, ‬which still‭, ‬happily‭, ‬flourishes‭. ‬The house is‭, ‬astonishingly‭, ‬still unlisted‭, ‬and this important and delightful area of what was Derbyshire seems not even to be in a conservation area‭, ‬either‭.‬

Should have stayed in Derbyshire‭, ‬chaps‭! ‬