Cottingham Grange Yorkshire

The name of Cottingham derives from the name of a 5^th century Anglo-Saxon tribal chief and means  'Homestead of Cotta's people'. Cotta is derived from an Acient Briton female deity called ‘Ket’, in turn derived from the Celtic for wood, ‘ Coed’. Cottingham Grange was built in 1802 but the Ringrose family had lived in the area since the seventeenth century. William Ringrose lived here in 1820, the time of his portrait painting:

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/humm/large/ery_humm_2007_2206_large.jpg

By 1865 the Ringrose family owned 1200 acres in Cottingham, reduced to just 570 acres by 1907. The Ringrose family also owned over 1000 acres and Sarum Manor House from 1870 to 1931.

The Grange was requisitioned during WW2 for officer’s quarters and barracks were built to the south east of the grounds. Some of the barracks still stood until the 1980s. The WW2 Operational Base for Cottingham North Auxiliary Unit Patrol was hidden underneath the green house, entered via the nearby Boiler House. The entire Patrol almost died from the boiler house fumes on one occasion but were rescued by a Unit Member (who was a GP) who had been out on patrol and discovered the unconscious group on his return.

Cottingham Grange was demolished around 1951 to make way for a new secondary school. A school still stands on the site today.

Newhill Hall Wath on Dearne

Newhill Hall Wath on Dearne South Yorkshire

John Payne was a wealthy farmer and Quaker who lived at Newhill Grange, Wath upon Dearne. He also owned lead mines and had shares in Derbyshire and Chesterfield canals. In 1785 he commissioned William Lindley (1739–1818) to build Newhill Hall. Lindley was a well known Doncaster architect who had been the first assistant to John Carr from his youth at 14 years old (working 1753 to 1773). He had already built the Doncaster playhouse in 1775 (now demolished) and became a Doncaster freeman in 1783, so was an obvious local choice for Payne’s new fashionable home.

The house was typically classical in style with 4 sets of twin pilasters adorning the higher level of the entrance front, with double bay windows on the ground level which may possibly have been added in the C19th. Round arched door with twin arched windows were used in each of the corridor wings leading to the two storey service wing blocks. A glass house was also added to the SW service wing during the C19th. The house was unusual for Lindley in that he used dressed local stone rather than the usual fashionable stucco, no doubt to give a more impressive and expensive façade.

The house was lived in by various family members until the last family resident died in 1944. Evacuee families from London who had been living locally then moved in and the house had a high occupancy although little repair work was done over the next few years. The council made a compulsory purchase in 1953 and the house was demolished. The whereabouts of the fixtures and fittings, and records of their purchase are not known, but would have been substantial.

The main entrance was in the south front, viewed here in a photograph taken from the SE side. The site of the hall today is grassed over and is the exact centre of Newhill Park. The north garden front would have been parallel with Nicholson Avenue and had a view directly up Hall Drive, a housing estate today.

Surviving work by Lindley in Doncaster includes 26 Hall Gate (1798) and 19-21 South Parade (The Pillared Houses) (1804).