| Nostell Priory | |
|---|---|
 Nostell Priory (front elevation) | |
 Interactive map of Nostell Priory | |
| Coordinates | 53°39′10″N1°23′24″W / 53.652706°N 1.390044°W /53.652706; -1.390044 |
| Area | 121 hectares (300 acres) |
| Architect | James Paine |
| Architectural style | Palladian |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Reference no. | 1262071[1] |
Nostell Priory is aPalladian house inNostell,West Yorkshire, in England, nearCrofton and on the road toDoncaster fromWakefield. It dates from 1733 and was built for the Winn family on the site of amedieval priory.[2] The Priory and its contents were given to theNational Trust in 1953 by the trustees of the estate and Rowland Winn, 3rd Baron St Oswald.
The priory was a 12th-centuryAugustinian foundation, dedicated toSt Oswald, supported initially byRobert de Lacy ofPontefract andThurstan of York.[3] By about 1114, Aldulf, confessor toHenry I of England, wasprior of a group ofregular canons at Nostell.[4] It is probable thatScone Abbey inScotland was founded by monks from Nostell.[5]
Sir John Field, the firstCopernican astronomer of note in England, is believed to have studied at Nostell in his youth under the tutelage of Prior Alured Comwn.[6]
As part of theDissolution of the Monasteries, the priory was seized and depredated in 1540 and granted to Dr. Thomas Leigh.[7][8] Nostell was purchased in 1567 bySir Thomas Gargrave, aHigh Sheriff of Yorkshire,Speaker of the House of Commons and President of theCouncil of the North,[9] fromthe 6th Baron Mountjoy for £3,560.[10] In 1613 it was purchased by William Ireland who, in 1629, sold the estate toSir John Wolstenholme, 1st Baronet, for £10,000. Nostell was then bought by the Winns from Wolstenholme[11] after the Wolstenholme family were bankrupted by debts they incurred to provide finance for the Royalist cause.
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The estate was purchased in 1654 by theLondon alderman, Sir Rowland Winn, after its last owner,Sir John Wolstenholme, was declared bankrupt in 1650. Construction of the present house started in 1733 and the furniture, furnishings, and decorations made for the house remain in situ. The Winns were textile merchants in London; George Wynne of Gwydir was appointed asDraper toElizabeth I, his grandson, Sir George Winn was created 1st Baronet of Nostell in 1660. In the nineteenth century the family prospered from the exploitation of coal under the Nostell estate, and later from leasing land atScunthorpe inLincolnshire afteriron ore deposits were found byRowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald, in 1858; Lord St Oswald later played an important role in the construction of theTrent, Ancholme and Grimsby Railway and the development of the Lincolnshire iron industry (from 1864) and steel industry (from 1891).[12]
The house was built byJames Paine for Sir Rowland Winn, 4th Bt., on the site of a 12th-centurypriory dedicated toSaint Oswald.Robert Adam was commissioned to design additional wings, only one of which was completed, and complete the staterooms. Adam added a double staircase to the front of the house, and designed buildings on the estate, including the stable block. Nostell Priory is home to a large collection ofChippendale furniture, all made for the house and commissioned by Sir Rowland Winn 5th Bart and his wifeSabine Winn.[13]Thomas Chippendale was born inOtley inWest Yorkshire in 1718 and had workshops in St Martin’s Lane, London. The Nostell Priory art collection includesThe Procession to Calvary byPieter Brueghel the Younger,William Hogarth'sScene from Shakespeare's The Tempest–the first depiction in a painting of any scene from Shakespeare's plays–and a self-portrait byAngelica Kauffman, as well asRowland Lockey's copy of the painting byHans Holbein (c. 1527 but now lost in a fire) ofSir Thomas More and Family; this copy was commissioned in 1592 by the More family and came to Nostell in the 18th century, and is said to be the most faithful to the destroyed original.[14]
Alongcase clock, with an almost completely wooden internal mechanism, made byJohn Harrison in 1717, is housed in thebilliard room. Harrison, whose father Henry is thought to have been an estate carpenter, was born within half a mile of the estate. He was referred to as John "Longitude" Harrison, after devoting his life to solving the problem of findinglongitude at sea by creating an accurate marine timekeeper. Known asH4, this chronometer can be seen at theRoyal Observatory, Greenwich in London.
In May 2007, a set ofGillows furniture returned to the house after refurbishment. These pieces furnish thetapestry room, as do a pair of largeVenetian vases made of wood inlaid with ivory and semi-precious stones.
The Adam stable block has undergone a major renovation and is now open as a visitor centre for the house and parkland. In June 2009 a suite of bedrooms on the second floor was handed to the National Trust. The bedrooms used by the Winns, had never been on public view before. They contain the original contents, including a regency four-poster bed and suite of Victorianbedroom furniture. Another room open to visitors is thebutler's pantry, with a display of Winn family silver, in the adjacent strongroom cabinets.
Nostell Priory occupies 121 hectares (300 acres) of parkland.[15] Within the grounds and gardens are lakeside walks. The main façade of the house faces east towards a grass vista. Leading to the lake on the west side of the house is the west lawn. The parkland has lakeside and woodland walks, views of the druid's bridge and walks to the restoredObelisk Lodge, a parkland gatehouse, through wildflower meadows. The park was purchased from Lord St Oswald by the National Trust with funding from the Heritage Lottery fund. The grant enabled the trust to acquire pictures, books, and furniture from the family.
To the west of the Middle Lake lies the Menagerie Gardens, completed around 1760 along with aGothic arch entrance. Built on the site of a medieval quarry, theMenagerie included a lioness, monkeys, bats and acock pit, as well as a keeper's lodge andice house.[16] The Obelisk Lodge was built in the 17th century and inhabited until the late 1950s.[17] The main lawn and the lower fields to the east of the Priory have been used for various large and small events over the years, however, it was"Central Yorkshire Scout County" in 2000 which provided a fundamental change to how the grounds could be used. The organisation chose Nostell Priory as the site for its year 2000 "Millennium Camp", which was to attract around 2,500 people from across the Yorkshire Scouting movement. During the 12-month preparation project to create temporary facilities and infrastructure,Yorkshire Water employee Jon Potter[18] persuaded his employers to donate/install subterranean high-pressure water mains and stand-pipe points around the entire eastern grounds. This was unprecedented both in terms of a corporate donation and in its benefit to the Priory, which up to that point had been considering how they could self-fund exactly this improvement.
In August 1982 a music festival was held sponsored and organised byTheakston's Brewery. Two years later another commercial festival was organised by a different group of people. The "Convoy" was involved in organising afree festival next to it. Riot police were mobilised to deal with element who joined the event and made many arrests.[19]
In 2012 theBBC reported that planning permission had been granted for an operating base for theYorkshire Air Ambulance. The site, including a hangar and aircrew accommodation, was operational by summer 2013. It replaced the previous facility atLeeds Bradford Airport which is north of Leeds.[20]
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