William Lindley – Country Houses

William Lindley: Country Houses of the Doncaster Area.

In 1774 Doncaster Corporation asked William Lindley, an architect based in York, to provide a plan for a new playhouse. This was duly approved by the Town Council and by 1776 the building was completed and open to theatregoers. Its success not only brought Lindley to live in Doncaster but also marked the beginning of a long relationship between architect and Corporation. A gaol, a town hall, a dispensary and a new Hall Cross were all built to his designs. He altered the Mansion House, adding an attic storey in 1801 followed a few years later by the addition of a dining room. By 1806 such was his standing in the town that when the Prince of Wales, later the Prince Regent, visited Doncaster he stayed at Lindley’s house in the Pillared Houses on South Parade.
Lindley also established an extensive private practice. Soon, fashionable new dwellings built to his designs began to appear all over town. St. George Gate, St. Sepulchre Gate, High Street, Hall Gate and South Parade all had examples of his work. Sadly many have been demolished, but enough still remain to show the influence he had on his ‘adopted town’. The atmosphere of much of South Parade today, for example, is still largely due to his work.
Lindley’s practice was not just confined to Doncaster. He worked all over Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire building town and country houses, churches and public buildings. He made all these journeys on horseback, as he did not own a carriage.
William Lindley had worked as an assistant to the famous architect John Carr of York for many years and is thought to have helped with his designs for Harewood House. However his earliest known country house work where he worked on his own was at Kirklees Hall probably built before 1777.

Bawtry Hall.

Lindley’s first country house in the Doncaster area was Bawtry Hall, constructed in 1780.

This charming brick mansion was built for Pemberton Milnes, a successful woollen merchant, magistrate and keen Whig politician from Wakefield. Milnes had a fine townhouse in Wakefield (which still stands today, marked by a plaque from Wakefield Civic Society) but he clearly aspired to a house in the country. Why he chose Bawtry is not known but perhaps he wanted it as an escape well away from the business. Bawtry must have seemed ideal. Here was the opportunity to build a secluded mansion yet with a busy market town only a few steps away.

Bawtry Hall is of two storeys and seven bays with two principal facades, one looking to the street and the other facing the garden. The original canted bays are a particularly attractive feature. It has been suggested that Lindley incorporated the remains of an earlier house into the fabric although I could see no evidence during a visit.

Milnes’ daughter Bridget eventually inherited the house. She and her first husband lived at the Hall but after his death, she married the 4th Viscount Galway of nearby Serlby Hall.

Bawtry was retained but became a second home. Although it eventually changed hands it continued to be a private house until the 2nd World War when it was acquired by the Government and occupied by the RAF. For many years it played a leading role in Britain’s defence. Today it is occupied by a Christian organisation and run as a conference and training centre.

An extension was added in the Edwardian period and it has been altered internally but nevertheless is still a splendid Georgian house. On my most recent visit (by permission) I wandered round the pleasant gardens and gazed back at the mansion. It did not take too much imagination to think how pleased Pemberton Milnes must have been with his new house built to William Lindley’s designs.

North: Hooton Pagnell and Owston

Hooton Pagnell Hall is a historic house situated in one of the area’s prettiest villages.

Parts of the building date from the 14th century but it has been much altered and added to over the years. By 1681 the house was owned by Sir Patience Warde, and, according to historian Angus Taylor, it was his descendant St. Andrew Warde who added a wing in1787 to designs by William Lindley. This garden front had three bays, with the two outer bays having a bowed form. The wing was rendered with stucco which was becoming fashionable at this time. Indeed Lindley used this material on the exterior of most of his houses.

To the north of Doncaster is Owston Hall, one of Lindley’s grandest country houses in the area.

Owston is unique in that correspondence between the architect and the owner of the estate, Bryan Cooke, has survived and is lodged at Doncaster MBC Archives. When historians studied the letters in the 1980s they revealed that Lindley was the architect of a number of houses which had previously been unattributed.

We know that Lindley tried to persuade Cooke to build a new house around 1786 but the latter insisted on improving the existing building. Eventually neither party was happy with the result and in 1790 they both agreed to build a new house which survives to this day. It was probably completed just after 1795, which is when Lindley supplied plans of fireplaces and mantelpieces for the bedchamber and drawing room.

The new house filled the blank page in Repton’s Red Book* of 1792 inscribed ‘here I intend to insert a view of the house as it will appear’ i.e. with an attached portico and a large bow on the return front.

The principal façade of the house has giant pilasters, an architectural feature which Lindley also used elsewhere. Inside, the entrance hall to the house has a fine screen of Corinthian columns, one of Lindley’s favourite features. The screen and splendid staircase behind make an attractive entrance to the house.

The correspondence between Lindley and Cooke is also interesting in that it shows the difference between formal and family rooms as well as Lindley’s plans to keep the servants out of sight. The description relates to the original plans for altering the older house but even so the same principles, if not the detail, would have applied to the new house, demonstrating Lindley’s understanding of how a country house ‘worked’.

He wrote to Cooke saying: "The Dining & Drawing room, being chiefly design'd to accommodate Visitors in Form & c; and the Library & Breakfast Parlour, for the accommodation of the Master & Mistress of the family… What I call the breakfast parlour would, of course, be your own common dining room; and its opening to the back stairs renders it singularly convenient… placed near the Offices by which means the servants has no occation to cross over the best staircase, or vestibule’’.

The Cooke, later Davies-Cooke, family retained ownership of the Hall for around 200 years although for much of the 20th century it had been flats. However, I remember visiting Mrs. Davies-Cooke with the Civic Trust many years ago when she lived in part of the building. Today it is the well-cared for Owston Hall Hotel with its own golf course in the grounds.

Bradford’s speculations drove him to bankruptcy but by 1789 he had recovered financially and bought the extensive estate of Adwick-le-Street, subsequently selling its mansion in 1791 to George Wroughton, a former East Indian merchant. He then sold off the rest of the land to 9 separate purchasers but kept 45 acres for himself.

He decided he wanted an elegant house on the site and it is believed that he asked William Lindley to design one for him.

This was completed in about 1795 and named ‘The Woodlands’. (The Woodlands has been attributed to Lindley on stylistic grounds and his previous dealings with Bradford). Thomas Bradford didn’t stay there long though and by 1799 he had moved to Ashdown Park in Sussex. The Woodlands, albeit much altered over the years, still stands today, having been a social club for many years. The adjoining grounds are now classified as a country park and open to the public. In the early years of the 20th century this house gave its name to the new model colliery village, Woodlands.

A house for Thomas Bradford

Whilst the Cookes and the Wardes were local gentry, Lindley’s next client was Thomas Bradford, an entrepreneur. Local history articles often refer to him as an upholsterer but in the 18th century this term signified a furniture dealer and not an upholsterer in the modern sense of the word. However, he was also a property developer. In 1776 he bought some land on Hall Gate and built 12 back to back houses between Hall Gate and East Laith Gate. These he called ‘Bradford Row’. In front, facing Hall Gate, he built two houses to designs by Lindley.

The canted bays were built with fine rooms behind them, notably a drawing room with a fine ceiling and a dining room. The Childers family leased out Cantley from the 19th century, and they eventually sold it, but it remained a private house. The Darley family, brewers from Thorne and great friends of the Trust, owned it for many years in the 20th century. Today it is in excellent condition but cannot be visited, being the private home of Lord Kirkham.

Colonel Childers also built Elmfield House in 1803, probably for his mother. This is not strictly a country house but when it was built, despite its close proximity to town, it did face open countryside. This house has been attributed to William Lindley on stylistic grounds, but it was altered in the early nineteenth century.

Cantley Hall

The Childers family had been established in Doncaster since at least the 14th century. Their moment of fame came in the early 18th century when they owned ‘Flying Childers’, said to be one of the fastest racehorses ever known. The family’s principal residence was at Carr House but they also owned a house at Cantley which was probably originally a farmhouse. However, the present house was constructed, or perhaps remodelled, in 1802 for John Walbanke Childers. It was not quite built to Lindley’s original plans, but nevertheless the house is unmistakably one of his creations.

William Lindley provided an Adam-style gateway and lodges at Campsall which stood until the 1950s. However, although this is the only official recognition of Lindley’s work, it is evident that he did far more. Photographs (not reproduced here) taken when the Hall was in a derelict state in the 1980s show Corinthian screens, an elegant staircase and an internal fanlight, all of which were hallmarks of Lindley’s.He probably altered the existing house for the Bacon Frank family in about 1800.

The house later became flats but in the late 20th century it fell empty. By 1979 the Trust had become increasingly worried about the state of Campsall Hall and we wrote to the Department of the Environment expressing our concerns. However, despite being listed Grade 11*, no doubt due to Lindley’s interiors, it was demolished in 1984.

Eric Braim, who wrote an article on Lindley in 1981, described the result. “Whilst Lindley’s house was less striking than its predecessor it certainly gained in compactness and convenience”.

I enjoyed visiting the house when it was open to the public many years ago, as there was much of interest. Eventually though, the family sold Serlby and today it is a very much a private mansion. William Lindley designed in a restrained and elegant style which appealed to the local gentry. We are fortunate that most of his local country houses have survived to this day, and are, in the main, well cared for.

Serlby Hall

In the same year that William Lindley prepared his plans for Campsmount came perhaps his most important local commission, rebuilding Serlby Hall for the 5th Viscount Galway. It was around this time that Lindley took a partner into the practice which was renamed Lindley and Woodhead. It is thought that Woodhead was probably a business partner.

Serlby was built by one of the country’s leading architects, James Paine. It was certainly a dramatic tri-partite building, but whilst it looked impressive it was an inconvenient house in which to live.
Lindley swept away the wings with their enormous pediments and created a new central block with a recessed arch. Some of Paine’s rooms were retained in this remodelled house.

NOTES

1. All houses in this article, unless stated otherwise, are private and not accessible to the public.
2. Lindley may have designed other local country houses. Alterations to Hickleton and also the largely demolished Streethorpe (Edenthorpe) Hall have been suggested.
3. As William Lindley was a bachelor, there were no ‘heirs’ to the firm, but former apprentice William Hurst took over after Lindley’s death in 1819, with the practice being renamed, Woodhead and Hurst. Hurst continued with country house work.