The following weblinks all have contributions about Nocton:
Nocton Village (MACLA)
All Saints Church
Nocton Village Trail
Nocton webpage - courtesy of Peter J Murray
The home of RAF and Airfield History in Lincolnshire
Jonesyb Exploration Projects - urban exploration in the UK
Photos of Nocton Hospital by Dave Fargher
Some Excellent Photos of the Nocton Hall and Hospital
Interesting Photos of Nocton Hall - on Page 8 and 9
Site dedicated to showing what remains of old RAF bases
General Information on Nocton Hall
BBC News article on fire at Nocton Hall
BBC News article on vandalism at Nocton Hall
Lincolnshire Echo article on Nocton Village Trail
Lincolnshire Echo article on Art Trail
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Personal Stories (Part 2)
From Horses to Computers – In 50 years, What Next?
by Mr Len Woodhead (Employed as a Foreman for Nocton Farms)
“I was born at Todd’s Farm, Nocton Fen (TD8) in 1937. At that time there were two cottages in the corner of the field which is now known as TD8. My father had come into Nocton Fen at the age of 18 as a second chap (2nd Waggoner) to a chap called George Reeve (later we saw his name on lorries).
This was at the Partridge Farm where he lodged until he married. There were eight horses at the Partridge. George looked after and worked four, and father the other four. At the time Dennis’s owned the estate.
The job was a seven day one, up at 5.30am to fetch in the horses and give them food ready for work by 6.30am. Sunday of course, was not worked, other than stable work unless it was a difficult harvest. The days in the fields working the horses would start at 6.30am with a half-hour break at 11.00am. Work would continue until 2.30pm (called Lowsing Time) when the horses would be brought back home. They would be groomed, fed and the stables cleaned out. The crew yards would be bedded with clean straw and only then would the Waggoners go in for dinner.
At about 5.30pm father would then come out again and ‘supper up’ (or feed) the horses. In the Summer he would be taking them into a grass field for the night – in the Winter they would stay in the Crew Yard.
In March 1932 Dad met and married my Mum and they moved to Todd’s. There he looked after and worked four horses, Bonnie, Captain, Star and Daisy. He used to do most of the drilling and potato ridging down on that section of the Fen and although he only had one eye he could plough and ridge or drill as straight as anybody.
I have the furniture bill from when they were married and it goes like this:
· Bedroom suite £10
· Settee suite £10.5s
· 4 rugs @3/6d each = 14s.0ds
· Table £2.2s
· 4 leather chairs @ 7/6d = £1.10s
· Armchair £1.2s.6d
· 1 ladies cane chair £1.2s.6d
· Oak sideboard £4.10s
· Mirror 5/11d
· Wringer £2
· Dolly Tub 5/11d
· Pegs 3/6d
· Clothes basket 2/6d
· Fire Kerb 12/6d
· Cloth horse 16/-
· 2 bedsteads @ £1.16s = £3.12s
· 2 spring mattresses @ £1.15s = £3.10s
· 2 wool mattresses @ £1.15s =£3.10s
· 2 feather beds @ 1/1d = £2.2s.0d
Total £49.1s.3d (all from Neale Bros in, High St, Lincoln).
The 3,000 acres in Nocton Fen was then in four sections, which each had a Foreman and about 40 permanent staff, plus about sixteen Irish labourers in season for hoeing/lifting and topping beet, picking potatoes and bringing in the harvest. Labourer’s wives would make up a potato picking gang during August and September.
The men on the lower part of the Fen mostly came from Bardney or over the Ferry from Southrey. At that time there were 28 houses inhabited in Nocton Fen, but they were occupied by Waggoners, Foremen and Stockmen etc. There were two blacksmith’s shops in the Fen – one near the Cathole Bridge, Todd’s Road and one at Lark Farm.
Apart from horses, of which there were between 70 and 80 in the Fen, there were also two sets of Ruston Ploughing engines or cultivators, and of course the Light Railway which joined all the farm yards from the rail head at Dunston to all parts of the estate.
The farm roads were only dirt roads so everything was moved by rail. No water was laid on, so all drinking and washing water was brought by rail – each house had old water tanks by the side of the railway line, with a piece of zinc covering them to keep out birds and soil.
Rations for the horses, pigs and beast were all brought by rail. Coal for the steam engines and Irishman’s fires were also brought by rail. Produce (potatoes, corn and peas) were taken by rail to Dunston. Sugar beet was also hauled by rail (Bardney factory was built in 1928), but it was taken down the Fen and emptied with forks into a pit on the Fen side of the river. The large iron bridge which you can still see today, carried a grab which carried the beet over the river and dropped it into railway trucks, where it was shunted around to the east side of the factory, before being emptied by forks again.
If you needed the Doctor he would bike from Bardney and leave his bike near the Fen road, put on his wellies and walk down to the farm yards. The houses were in fair condition, a coal fire in every room. The toilet was down the bottom of the garden, sometimes with two seats so you wouldn’t be lonely or frightened. You could take a candle with you and read the latest news on the toilet paper (Lincolnshire Chronicle).
Mum would have a large old wash-house with a steel copper, which of course was heated with coal. Out in the farm-yard would be ducks, cockerils and hens, a couple of pigs in the sty at the bottom of the garden and a few rabbits as well, so you didn’t need the butcher.
The butcher would come around, once in December and once in January to kill the pigs. That was always a busy day, up at 5.00am to get the copper going, as it had to be full of scalding hot water by 8am. The butcher would kill the pig after which we placed it on the cratch (a two wheeled trolley).
Scalding water would be thrown over the pig until the whiskers came off easily with scrapers. When that was done, the pig would be hung up in a shed or apple tree and cut open. The intestines would be taken out and the pig left to hang for about 4 hours.
The butcher would go into the house for a fried breakfast and to collect his money, and he would go on to the next farm. All in all in a Saturday morning he would probably kill about four pigs and by dinner time he had to start his afternoon visits to cut the pigs up into chines, flitchers and harris etc. These would then be salted, laid out in the floor of the pantry or in a salt box, and left for a month to cure, before being hung up on the kitchen ceiling until you wanted it for joints.
Mum would be busy all week making up fries to take round to friends around the Fen farm-yards and also making sausage, pork pie, brown and haslet, so you could guarantee if was pork for at least three weeks until the pork pies had gone.
We didn’t have a radio or wireless, so by the fireside at night under the paraffin lamp we would play cards, dominoes or help mum cut snips to make the rugs. We always had a dog and at least one cat – there being plenty of rats and mice you needed them around the farm. If it snowed too heavy in the wintertime, mum used to carry water from the delf and boil it for household use, because it didn’t need much snow to stop the Light Railway operating.
Footnote
In 1931, the Estate covered 7,000 acres. This was the time when 26 farms were thrown into one (making Mr JH Dennis’s farming enterprise). 7,000 acres, 7 miles long and three miles wide. 1,500 acres potatoes, 1,000 acres wheat, 500 acres of oats, 500 acres of barley, 280 acres peas. There was also sugar beet, beans and clover. There were 3,000 sheep, 2,000 pigs and 500 head of cattle.
There was 23% more labour employed than when it was previously divided into 26 farms. 10,000 to 15,000 tons of potatoes were produced annually, 50,000 bushels of wheat. As many as 260 tons of potatoes could be loaded per day for Newcastle – Sheffield – Cardiff – London.
Four threshing machines harvested all the peas, wheat and barley. The beet factory was built on part of the Estate, even though it was over the river.
Personal Stories (Part 1)
The Changes and Modernisation of Nocton
The old Ten Row houses were altered over the years to make them larger. This was done by making two houses into one. In 1983, the row was bought by Simons builders, stripped and modernised. When they were finished the houses were sold off and are as you see them today. After modernisation, they sold for around £24,000 each, in 1989.
Hall's Yard originally consisted of a farmhouse and a large barn, used in the past for fertiliser storage. Later it was used as a chitting house for seed potatoes. More recently the barn has been converted into a house. There were five garages used by the estate foremen for their vehicles, these have now been made into a bungalow.
At the other end of the yard was a large open waggon oval. This has been converted into a garage for Mr J Watt who has also built a house in the yard. In the opposite corner of the yard is a bungalow, which was made out of some old stables and the crewyard. This was done in the 50's to accommodate some poultry girls.
There were two other areas facing south which used to be stables and crewyards, one next to the manor house garden has been converted into a bungalow; the other one, which a few years ago was a shed for large tractors, is now part of the gardens and garage of the converted barn.
Wray's yard buildings consisted of the large buildings on the right hand side. In the 40's, these were a partly open crewyard for horses and bullocks, with stables at the rear. Later the fronts were bricked up and the large parts were used for chitting seed potatoes, after that they were used as tractor sheds. Now they are two lovely bungalows.
As you walk into the yard, looking straight ahead is the old barn, this was used for storing fertiliser and then later made into a seed potato chitting house. In the rear of the yard were further crewyards for bullocks and pigs. Some fine houses have now been built here.
The manor yard had a large dairy herd when I was a lad at Nocton school. It was quite an impressive farmyard at that time. There was a T.T. tested dairy herd and during the 50's some new bull pens were built, but on 11th May 1961 the last of the herd was sold.
After this date the crewyards were used for fattening bullocks and, for many years, all the lambing was done there. It has now been sold off to a developer to build ten houses. One or more of the old buildings were to be kept and made into houses in order to keep a little bit of the old character, but something went wrong and the whole site was demolished and cleared.
Source: this extract is taken from:
A Lincolnshire Lad Looks Back - Nocton Estate - The Home of Smith's Crisps
By Len Woodhead
Japonica Press £9.99
ISBN 095402229-7
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Nocton Estate - The Lincolnshire Potato Railways
Nocton Estate Light Railway
This extract has been taken from 'The Lincolnshire Potato Railways' - by Stewart E Squires
Oakwood Press - ISBN 0 85361 352 4
The most prominent potato producer and the greatest user of railway line were W. Dennis and Sons who owned large estates at Nocton (8,000 acres), Deeping St Nicholas (2,000 acres) and Kirton (2,000 acres). W Dennis and Sons established their Nocton Estate in 1919 – the annual production in the 1950’s being some 17,000 tons of food, consisting primarily of potatoes.
The Estate Manager (a Major Webber) inspired the purchase of the narrow gauge line from an Army Surplus Depot in Arras, France. The track had been used as a resupply line during the First World War.
Initially just 4 miles of the one foot eleven and a half inch gauge was established at Nocton... on the heavy fenland east of Wasp's Nest. After 1926, the narrow gauge line was greatly extended in order that it could be connected to the railhead on the Lincoln to Sleaford mainline. The weight of the line at Nocton, because of the intensive use of locomotives, was 20lb per yard.
In the end, the route amounted to almost 23 miles of single track (on the Nocton Estate alone). Eventually they were to operate over 30 miles of line in total. Almost every field on the large estates was reached so that produce could be harvested straight onto trucks.
The railhead (located near the old Dunston/Nocton Station) consisted of Estate workshops, a mill, greenhouse and engine shed. There was a 'dock' for offloading produce into lorries or the standard gauge railway waggons (located in a siding - a loop of the Lincoln/Sleaford main line).
At the mill was a large green baize covered board with an Estate field plan and the railway route marked on it. Each field was numbered and each wagon number was attached to a pin. Every wagon movement was noted by a traffic controller.
In 1927 the Bardney Beet Factory was built. Sugar beet from the Nocton Estate was transported to the factory by a mechanical grab running along a gantry over the River Witham, where it was picked up from a dump, from rail trucks dispersing their load.
The Estate's main customer was Smith's Potato Crisps and it was this company that finally bought the land from W. Dennis & Sons in 1936. At its peak, Nocton estate was using 220 working horses, had 1,000 cattle, up to 3,000 pigs and 2,000 sheep (their food was also transported by the narrow gauge railway from the mill).
Tractors were introduced in 1948 (24) and increased in number in 1951 (32). In 1955 the Estate was still producing some 17,000 tons annually - however since World War 2 and the growth of road transport, the rural roads had improved allowing articulated lorries to gain access to each farmstead. By 1960 almost all fields were accessible by road, thius sounding the death knell for the light railway. It was finally closed in July 1969.
The engines and rolling stock from Nocton have survived to this current day and can be seen at the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway.
Nocton Bits and Pieces
The Green
The chestnut tree on The Green was planted by Lord Ripon’s one son, Earl de Grey in 1873. This was to commemorate his 21st birthday.
Nocton Estate
Nocton Estate was once owned by a company - Agricultural Estates Ltd. F. Le Neve Foster advised on 9th July 1962 (in a letter to one Mr Ireson), “So far as I recollect, the Estate, with other large farms, was sold by Dennis and Sons to a public company floated by Hatry in 1920 to which the public were invited to subscribe on the basis of a valuation by Knight, Frank and Rutley. This flotation has particular interest because I believe it was the only occasion on which the Public were invited to subscribe to a purely farming enterprise. It was not a success and never paid a dividend.”
Ripon’s Gun Smashes Estimate
(Shooting Times and Country Magazine - 9th September 1999)Lord Ripon’s shotgun fetched £40,000 at the recent Sotheby sale of modern and vintage guns and rifles at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire.
The 12-bore hammer ejector was made for Lord Ripon by James Purdey & Sons in 1895. It was the No 2 gun of a pair, which went under the hammer along with the game book from Lord Ripon’s Yorkshire estate. The gun was originally given by Lord Ripon to his head gamekeeper at Studley Royal who passed it on to his son.
Lord Ripon was widely regarded as one of the finest and fastest Shots of his time. He died in 1923 with his gun in his hand on Dallowgill Moor. He recorded 556,813 head of game and, on one occasion, he is reputed to have had seven dead pheasants in the air at one time.
All Saints Church, Nocton (Part 2)
The New Church
The most impressive memorial to 'Prosperity' Robinson and Lady Sarah, however, is the present church of All Saints. Its Georgian predecessor (see Early History) had never been a satisfactory building, and though only 40 years old when the couple inherited the estate, was already decaying rapidly. By 1845 its western wall was dangerously cracked, a pewter bowl (still used for baptisms) was being used as a font - the mediaeval font having been exiled to the churchyard - and there was a bookshelf above the altar. Since it only seated 200 people (plus 40 children in the gallery) it was also too small for a parish whose population numbered 510 in 1851. But perhaps this scarcely mattered, since the average Sunday congregation in that year totalled only about 100 adults. The explanation, according to Vicar Edward Wilson, was that; 'The parish being nine miles long, several families who are from three to five miles from the parish church rarely or never attend it, but go elsewhere'.
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All Saints Church, Nocton [North side] - 30 Jun 2009
copyright Geoff Hall
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At Nocton, Scott chose to imitate the 'Early Decorated' style of c.1300, then regarded as the 'best' period of Gothic architecture. Built with no expense spared, the church was probably begun in 1860, being consecrated on December the 16th, 1862 and dedicated to All Saints: this was a new dedication, for previous Nocton churches had been dedicated to St. Peter. It was chosen in honour of Lord Ripon, whose birthday was November the first, or All Saints Day.
All Saints church, however, was not quite complete when Lady Sarah died in April 1867. A south aisle and south porch had been included in the original design, and these were added in 1872 by her son the Marquess of Ripon 'as a tribute of reverential affection to his mother'.
The Marquess, a deeply religious man as well as a successful Liberal politician, was at this time a leading Freemason: but two years later he suddenly announced his conversion to Roman Catholicism, though he apparently returned to the Anglican church before his death in 1909. He is buried in the magnificent Victorian church of Studley Royal, near Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire. This 'sister church' to All Saints was built by the Marquess in 1871-8, as a memorial to his brother-in-law Frederick Vyner, who was murdered by Greek brigands. It is well worth a visit, as is the sombre and indeed rather sinister church of Christ the Consoler at Skelton-cum-Newby, North Yorkshire, also built during the 1870s in memory of Frederick Vyner.
The Marquess sold the Nocton estate in 1889, but before he did so he financed the finishing touches to the furnishings of All Saints. These provoked many admiring comments, which sum up the spirit behind the building of Nocton's church, and indeed of the Victorian Gothic Revival it so admirably typifies. 'We cannot take our leave of Nocton', enthused the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society in 1872, 'without referring to the unstinting munificence which is evident in every part and detail, both of the church itself, and of its furniture. Nothing has been neglected or regarded as too insignificant to deserve reverential care. Would that there were more parish churches in our great diocese where the ruling principle was as markedly the determination not to give the Lord of that which doth cost them nothing'.
A walk round the church
All Saints church was commissioned by Sarah Albinia, Countess of Ripon; designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in imitation of the 'Early Decorated' style of c.1300; and built by Mr. W. Hudleston. It consists of a tower and spire, nave, and chancel with attached 'mortuary chapel' and vestry, all built between 1860 and 1863; and a south aisle and south porch, added in 1872. The entire church is constructed in best-quality Ancaster stone from mid-Lincolnshire, and roofed with brindled tiles from Broseley in Shropshire.
The exterior
The church is usually approached from the north, via the spacious churchyard. This gives a good view of the nave and the lower chancel, whose windows (like many others in the church) are filled with 'plate tracery' imitating the style of c.1300. The tower, whose lowest stage forms an entrance porch, rises into an octagonal belfry, topped by a fine spire reaching a height of 120 feet. The belfry houses a peal of six bells, given by Lady Sarah in 1865: they were cast by Messrs. Mears at the Whitechapel Foundry. Their weights and inscriptions are as follows:
1. BLESSING. 4 cwt.; 2. HONOUR. 4 cwt, 1 qrt, 20 lbs.; 3. GLORY. 4 cwt, 3 qrs, 27 lbs.; 4. POWER. 5 cwt, 1 qrs, 24 lbs.; 5. BE UNTO HIM THAT SITTETH ON THE THRONE, 6 cwt, 2 qrs, 19 lbs.; 6. AND UNTO THE LAMB FOREVER, 8 cwt, 1 qrs, 11 lbs. Total weight 1 ton, 13 cwt, 3 qrs, 17 lbs.
The inscription comes from the last words of Handel's 'Messiah', and is an adaption of Revelations 7:12. Round the corner from the tower is the west window, its two pointed arches topped by a roundel, and then the south side of the church. This south side is quite different in appearance from its northern counterpart. Above the nave south aisle (added in 1872) is the clerestory (or 'clear storey') of repeated 'blank arches', containing four small windows which give extra light to the interior. Then comes the protruding vestry with its chimney, and the 'mortuary chapel' housing the tombs of the Earl of Ripon and his family.
In the churchyard near the porch lies the ancient parish font of Nocton, sole surviving relic of the mediaeval church of St. Peter demolished in 1773: an octagonal bowl resting on 'ballflower' ornaments, it probably dates from the 14th century. The fine vaulted porch itself was added in 1872. Its buttresses display statues of four saints: on the western buttress is St. John the Baptist in his camel-skin cloak; St. Peter, with his keys, stands left of the door; St. Paul, with his sword, on the right; and St. John the Evangelist on the eastern buttress. On the porch gable is an image of the Virgin and Child, and the inner door is flanked by pillars displaying some of the 'fine and rich carving' much praised when the church was built.
The interior
The interior of All Saints also provoked tremendous enthusiasm from the Victorians, and what now makes it especially interesting is that it remains almost completely unchanged since the day it was finished. Particularly attractive is the original decorative colour scheme; its dominant shades of maroon and red-brown are used for walls and wall-paintings, roofs, and even the heating radiators.
The nave
The nave is unusually lofty by comparison with its height and width. The fine timbered - roof of its main aisle takes the form of a trefoil or clover-leaf,and like the sloping roof of the south aisle is stencilled with a pattern of flowers. Such clover-leaf roofs are rare in English churches, and Scott probably borrowed the idea from one of the European buildings he often visited. From there, too, he derived the rectangular abaci of the clustered pillars of the south aisle - that is, the flat sections at the top of the pillars, between the band of intricate carving and the base of the arches. These were the one feature of All Saints criticized by the Victorians, who preferred English-style round abaci, and thought Scott's design 'foreign-looking'.
Immediately to the right of the entrance door is the marble monument of Dean Henry Hobart (see above, History), a typical early Victorian composition by G.P. White. Oddly enough, it does not show the Dean himself, but portrays his sorrowing wife (d.1867) and his daughter, the 'Miss Hobart' who designed All Saints' east window. To the left of the door, on the west wall of the south aisle, stands the late Georgian memorial of Henry's brother Robert, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire d.1816 (see above, History), carved by William Bacon and transferred here from the Georgian church.
The west wall of the nave itself displays some of the best of the red-outline wall-paintings which are among All Saints' most delightful features: taken together, they form the most complete scheme of Victorian figure painting in any Lincolnshire church. To the left of the central war memorial is a charming Noah's Ark scene, including rabbits and some unusually amiable-looking snakes: to the right, the Israelites are seen landing after their miraculous Red Sea crossing, while Moses summons up the waves to drown their Egyptian pursuers. Above, flanking the window, are four saints, not all of them officially canonised. On the left stands Bishop Remigius, founder of Lincoln Cathedral; then comes St. Guthlacof Croyland, Saxon founder of the Fenland abbey; then St. Mary Magdalen; and on the right - most surprisingly - 'Little St. Hugh' of Lincoln, with cross and martyr's palm. Not to be confused with the sainted Bishop Hugh of Lincoln, this child was alleged to have been ritually crucified by Jews in 1255, a wicked slander which provoked a wholesale attack on the Jews of Lincoln. Venerated as a martyr, his body was later enshrined in Lincoln Cathedral, but the tales about him had long since been discredited when All Saints was built. This painting, indeed, is almost certainly the only post-Reformation representation of 'Little Saint Hugh' in an English church: how it came to be included in Nocton's decorative scheme is a mystery.
The west window in this wall is filled with Victorian stained glass by the firm of Clayton and Bell, commemorating the Countess of Ripon who built the church. It depicts the Old Testament figures Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hannah and Samuel, with scenes from their lives. Below and to the right stands the elaborate Victorian font of 1862, carved in Caen stone from Normandy with pillars of green Irish marble.
To see a piece of equally opulent display, though of a quite different style and period, pass through the nearby doors into the tower. There stands the towering monument of Sir William Ellys (d.1680), brought from the mediaeval church. Sir William was the great-uncle of the builder of Nocton Old Hall (see above, History) who erected this monument. Its Latin epitaph records that he died a bachelor at the age of 77, and that he was a Justice of the Common Pleas: but it does not mention that he had been a zealous Parliamentarian and Oliver Cromwell's Solicitor-General, achievements best forgotten by the time his memorial was set up during Charles II's reign.
The north wall of the nave is stencilled with pretty red-brown 'diaperwork', and its window display stained glass of early twentieth century date. That nearest the west commemorates Edward Howard, a churchwarden who died in 1922: it depicts Bishop St. Hugh of Lincoln, holding a model of Lincoln Minster, and St. Theodore, an early Archbishop of Canterbury, holding a model of Canterbury Cathedral. Below them are excellent pictures of Nocton's Georgian church (left) and Nocton Old Hall. The middle window is also interesting, though its subjects might not now be thought suitable for a church. It remembers L.B. Wray, killed while serving with the Tank Corps during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, the first occasion when tanks were used in significant numbers. Below figures of Saints Oswald and Etheldreda, it therefore depicts an early tank and a machine gun, and in the topmost light is the Tank Corps badge. Between this window and the next is a tablet to a steward of the Nocton estate, and then comes a window to Evangeline Dennis: proudly proclaiming her descent from one of the Pilgrim. Fathers, it shows the Mayflower sailing westwards, beneath figures of St. Aldan and the Venerable Beds.
Nearby stands the pulpit, a multicoloured Victorian extravaganza in Caen and Ancaster stone, with pillars of red Mansfield stone and green marble, a fine brass rail, and roundels depicting Christ, St. Peter and St. John. Above it is the chancel arch, surmounted by a great wall-painting of Christ in Glory, flanked by a concourse of angels, saints and prophets: among those on the left is King David with his harp, and on the right stands a very Victorian St. George, with armour and red cross banner. The arch itself has some splendid floral carving on its capitals.
Before passing through it, however, it is worth crossing to the south aisle. The easternmost window here commemorates Mary, daughter of vicar Edward Wilson: it thus depicts two Maries, the Virgin and St. Mary Magdalen, while in the bottom left hand corner are the heraldic arms of the Marquess of Ripon, including the stags of the Robinson family, the galley of their Campbell relations and the six-pointed star of the Hobarts of Nocton. Further west hangs the fine banner of the 'Loyal Ripon Lodge' of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows, the 'village club and friendly society' which provided Nocton folk with assistance before the days of state pensions and national insurance. Appropriately, then, the banner depicts the story of the Good Samaritan.
The chancel
No expense was spared in decorating and furnishing the nave of All Saints: but the chancel was made more sumptuous and gorgeous yet, as befitted the most sacred part of the church. Along its north wall are ranged painted Apostles and (nearest the altar) Gospel-writers in the familiar red-brown colour scheme, interspersed with two stained glass -windows depicting (left) Old and (right) New Testament subjects relating to the Communion service. The paintings continue round onto the east wall, to show the Resurrection (left) and Ascension (right) of Christ, flanking the great east window above the altar. This window was designed by an amateur artist, Miss Hobart, daughter of the old Dean. It depicts the Multitude of All Saints gathered around Michael the Archangel, while beneath white-robed Elders cast their crowns before the Throne of God. Victorian commentators praised its 'freshness', but even they had to admit that its pale colouring was rather wishy-washy.
The same could certainly not be said of the 'reredos' or altar piece carved by Italian artists and given by the Marquess of Ripon. The focus of the chancel and indeed of the whole church, it centres upon a triptych of marble panels representing the Road to Calvary, the Crucifixion, and the Entombment of Christ. These are enshrined beneath gilded canopies with marble shafts, and on either side are canopied alabaster panels inscribed with serried ranks of kneeling saints and patriarchs. There can be no doubt at all that Lord Ripon thought the altar the most important item in the church, and the Communion service performed there its most important ceremony.
The altar itself (sadly damaged in a fire) stands raised on marbled steps. Before it, just within the elaborate brass altar rails, are perhaps the most amazing of All Saints' furnishings: a pair of gargantuan seven-branched candlesticks, almost twelve feet high and decked with brass angels. Yet amid all this splendour, it is comforting to note that practicalities are not entirely forgotten. For near the chancel north wall stands a heating radiator, discreetly painted maroon to merge with its surroundings.
The South Chapel
Though the altar is the focus of All Saints, the principal motive for building the church stands not far away - namely the tomb of the Earl of Ripon, alias 'Prosperity Robinson', and his Countess Sarah Albinia. Only the Earl, however, is portrayed on the tomb, which was designed by Scott, while the marble effigy was carved by Matthew Noble. Extraordinarily lifelike, it depicts the side-whiskered Lord Ripon in his Parliament robes, lying peacefully as if asleep.
The tomb is set just within the south or "mortuary chapel". Round its walls the scheme of wall-paintings continues with pictures of Saints Peter and Paul, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem (a particularly fine painting), and Christ instructing his Disciples to 'Suffer Little Children' to come to Him. This last is sadly appropriate, for many of those commemorated here died at tragically early ages. Among them is Eleanor, daughter of the Earl and Countess, whose memorial (surmounted by a lily for purity) is set down on the chapel south wall. She died aged 11 in 1826, 'being then the only child of her parents and one of great promise': with her is commemorated her baby brother Hobart Frederick, who died at the age of two days.
The east window of the chapel, designed by Miss Hobart, also remembers tragedies within the family of Nocton's squires. It commemorates and portrays her two sisters, likewise daughters of Dean Hobart: Albinia Mary, who died aged 16; and Maria, who died aged 30, shown holding the baby who soon afterwards followed her to the grave. Within the vestry, however, is a rather more cheerful remembrance of childhood, clearly visible through the iron screen. This is the memorial of Katherine 'Nanny' Field, Dean Hobart's beloved nurse: it was erected by the Dean himself, 'For time could not efface the earliest impressions of his youth !!'.
PostscriptThough All Saints is such a fine and beautiful example of a Victorian estate Church, it is no mere museum. It remains a living place of worship, part of the group parish of Nocton, Dunston and Potterhanworth, and services are held here regularly. You are most welcome to attend them.
This guide draws heavily on a more detailed work: ‘Some Notes for a History of Nocton’, written by Kate Norgate and MH Footman in 1900. Though long out of print, copies can be consulted in the Local History room of Lincoln Reference Library. I should also like to extend grateful thanks to Canon Rodger, Vicar of Nocton; to Mrs. Redshaw of Nocton and to Miss Hilary Healey for assistance in compiling this guide.
Charles Kightly, Diocesan Tourism Consultant: May 1991
Website for All Saints, Nocton: http://www.allsaintsnocton.org.uk/index.htm
All Saints Church, Nocton (Part 1)
Early history
Drafted by Charles Kightly (May 1991) |
All Saints Church, Nocton [South side] - 30 Jun 2009
copyright Geoff Hall
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A church and a village, however, existed at Nocton many centuries before Victoria's reign. The original settlement may date from Prehistoric or Roman times: for the Roman Carr Dyke (which linked the river Witham to the Welland and formed part of an ancient fen drainage system), cuts through the middle of the parish, dividing Nocton Fen from the higher land on which the village stands. Two dug-out canoes, probably Bronze Age, were discovered when the Dyke was dredged in 1790. Certainly there was an Anglo-Saxon settlement at Nocton, whose name (spelled 'Nochetune' in 1086) may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words 'hnoc tun', meaning 'village of the wether sheep'. (A wether is a castrated ram, often kept in ancient times as a flock leader).
When Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, Nocton's population numbered some 38 families, and the village already possessed a priest and a church. (No trace of this Saxon church survives, but it probably stood immediately south-west of Nocton Hall). By this time the manor of Nocton belonged to Norman d'Arcy, one of the companions of William the Conqueror: his descendants would continue to own it for nearly another six centuries, until 1660.
Another important influence on the mediaeval village was Nocton Park Priory, founded by Norman's son Robert d'Arcy in the mid-12th century for the 'Black Canons' of the Augustinian order, so called from the colour of their robes. The Priory stood by the Carr Dyke about a mile east of the village, on a site now known as Abbey Hill. Only earthworks now survive there to mark its position, but in the 18th century the foundations of the Priory church and cloister could still be traced. The canons also owned the parish churches of Nocton and Dunston and land in many surrounding villages, but the Priory was never very large or wealthy, being overshadowed by the more important monasteries of Bardney and Kirkstead. Only four canons were still living there when it was finally suppressed in 1536, during the early stages of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.
On the 13th of October 1541 King Henry VIII himself visited Nocton with his flighty fifth wife Katherine Howard, staying overnight with the young squire Thomas Wymbishe on their return from a royal progress through Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. He is said to have planted an ancient chestnut tree in the Hall grounds. (Not long afterwards Queen Katherine lost her head, partly because of her infidelities during this very progress). The manor house where the royal couple stayed has long since disappeared, along with its successor on the site of the Priory, and by the 1670s ownership of Nocton had passed from the descendants of Norman d'Arcy to the Ellys family.
The first of the family to live at Nocton was the Puritan judge and M.P. Sir William Ellys, whose splendid monument (brought from the old church) can still be seen in the tower of All Saints. Though he held high office as solicitor-general to Oliver Cromwell, he afterwards managed to make his peace with Charles II, and died a wealthy old bachelor in 1680, leaving Nocton to his great-nephew Sir William Ellys, baronet (1653-1727). It was this second Sir William who, in about 1690, built 'the magnificent seat of Nocton Hall', on the site of the present Hall. His mansion (later known as 'the Old Hall') burnt down in 1834, but a fragment of its separate banquetting hall (c.1680 ?) still survives, forming the wall of a house about 100 yards north of the church. Old engravings show that the Old Hall was a large E-plan building, with five turrets topped by cupolas.
Later residents of the Old Hall included the rakish Sir Francis Dashwood. second husband of Sir William's daughter-in-law: nationally notorious as the founder of the 'Hellfire Club', Sir Francis was better-known locally as the public-spirited builder of Dunston Pillar, whose remains still stand by the main A15 road some four miles west of Nocton. Originally 92 feet high, equipped with refreshment rooms, and topped by a lantern, it was designed as a 'land-lighthouse' to guide benighted travellers across the highwayman-haunted wilds of Nocton Heath.
The Hobarts
From the Dashwoods, Nocton passed (in about 1767) to the scarcely less flamboyant George Hobart (1731-1804), later (1793) third Earl of Buckinghamshire. A distant cousin of the Ellys family, Hobart was 'exceedingly fond of dramatics, and was for a time a conductor of the operatic entertainments in London': indeed, he celebrated his arrival at Nocton Hall with 'a grand masquerade', and frequently performed plays there in subsequent years. His wife Albinia Bertie of Branston (1738-1816), was a compulsive gambler and devotee of the game of 'faro'. "When she won, she went abroad in her sedan chair, attended by gorgeous lackeys, to scatter largess among the poor': but when she lost, the Nocton estate had to be temporarily mortgaged (1786) to pay her gambling debts.
Perhaps because of such goings-on, the Hobarts thought the ancient parish church of St. Peter 'too inconveniently close to their mansion'. Though they had no legal right to do so, they therefore demolished it in 1773. Only the Ellys monument and a mediaeval font in All Saints' churchyard now survive from the old church, but the site of its churchyard is marked by a rise in the ground south-west of the present Hall, covering the remains of over 20 generations of Nocton parishioners.
To replace it, the Hobarts built an entirely new Georgian church much further from the Hall, on the site of the present church. Later described as 'a small mean structure', it was consecrated in 1775, and old pictures (there is a drawing in All Saints, and a representation in the north-west window of the nave) show that it was built in the currently fashionable Classical style, with a small bell-turret. The interior was filled with unvarnished deal box-pews, and had a raised gallery at the east end.
The third Earl also drastically 'improved' the Nocton estate, draining its fens and enclosing its common land. Most of his time, however, was spent in 'smart London society', his two sons Robert and Henry being left at Nocton in the care of Katherine ('Nanny') Field, the steward's wife. A touching memorial to her can be seen in All Saints' vestry: it was erected by Henry Hobart 'in full recollection of her Kindness, Care and watchful Attention over him during the first ten years of his life'.
This 'Honourable and Very Reverend Henry Hobart' (1774-1846), whose own much more elaborate monument stands near All Saints' entrance door, was the third Earl's younger son. Appointed Vicar of Nocton in 1815, in the following year he also became Dean of Windsor. He was thus in effect a personal chaplain to the Royal Family, and in his later years this 'strange old gentleman' grossly but quite unintentionally offended the young Queen Victoria: for on the birth of her eldest son (the future King Edward VII) he attempted to congratulate her on 'thus saving us from the incredible curse of a female succession'.
Robert Hobart, the Dean's elder brother, succeeded his father as 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire in 1804: his marble monument stands at the west end of All Saints' nave. It records his career as an eminent politician and colonial administrator, and in particular his negotiation of a new charter (depicted on the monument) for the East India Company. He is now much better known, however, for his associations with Hobart, capital of Tasmania, founded during his time as Colonial Secretary and named after him.
In 1810 the 4th Earl renovated Dunston Pillar, replacing its crowning lantern with a colossal statue of King George III: a mason named John Willson fell off the pillar to his death while fixing it in position, and is buried in Harmston churchyard beneath the tombstone epitaph: 'He who erected the noble King, is here now laid by Death's sharp sting'.
King George himself was less than delighted to hear that his statue had been set up in such a desolate spot. 'Ah, Lincolnshire', he remarked in disgust, 'all flats, fogs and fens!'. The statue was removed when Dunston Pillar was shortened by the R.A.F. during the second World War: its head and shoulders can now be seen in the grounds of Lincoln Castle.
'Prosperity Robinson' and Lady Sarah
Earl Robert died in 1816 without male heirs, whereupon his title passed to a nephew. But the Nocton estate passed to his only daughter Lady Sarah Albinia Hobart (1793-1867), who had recently married the Honourable Frederick John Robinson (1782-1859), then M.P. for Ripon, later Viscount Goderich of Nocton (1827), and eventually first Earl of Ripon (1833).
Robinson's career as a politician left something to be desired, 'he being not endowed with either capacity or experience....besides being disqualified for vigorous measures by the remissness and timidity of his character". His failings as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1823-7) gained him the mocking nickname' Prosperity Robinson', and though he managed to remain Prime Minister for five chaotic months between August 1827 and January 1828, he was 'singular among Prime Ministers in being the only one who never faced Parliament in that capacity, his Cabinet having been formed so weakly or managed so clumsily that it fell to pieces before the accustomed time of trial arrived'. In short, he was 'perhaps the weakest Premier to whom a Sovereign of England ever intrusted the seals of office.
All the same, Lord Ripon was respected as 'a fair and candid man', and he and Lady Sarah were certainly good friends to Nocton. The village's present attractive appearance, indeed, is largely due to the generosity of this couple and their son the Marquess of Ripon (1827-1909). Between them they built the Almshouses (1833), the School (1869), and the cottages known as the Old Row (1841), the Ripon Row (1870s) and the Ten Row (1878), all in a distinctive 'Gothic Revival' style.
The Ripons also built the present Nocton Hall, now a Residential Home and hospital. Despite the valiant efforts of a brand-new village fire-engine, Sir William Ellys's Old Hall burnt to the ground on July the 15th, 1834, blazing for nearly fifteen hours. At the 'earnest petition' of the villagers who volunteered to cart building materials at their own expense - its replacement was begun in October 1841, the architect being William Shearburn of Dorking, a Nocton-born 'local boy made good' who was the son of the estate joiner, Joseph Shearburn. Old Joseph himself oversaw the building work, which took ten years and cost between £40,000 and £50,000. Much of the walling stone was quarried nearby on Dunston Heath.
Nocton Hall - and the accidental Prime Minister
'Prosperity' Robinson
(This extract is taken from: The Journal)'Prosperity' Robinson was a moderniser who formed a government and became a father while in Downing Street… he was challenged by a prickly Cabinet and troubles in Ireland… and he was targeted by direct action demonstrations reminiscent of earlier unrest in France. There resembles end between any latter-day politician and Frederick ‘Prosperity’ Robinson. No landslide leader, he was more the Accidental Prime Minister. Yet he still remains the only Lincolnshire man ever to hold that post.
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| Frederick John Robinson |
History has not been kind to Robinson. Go to Nocton today and the local booklet informs you he was perhaps the weakest Premier of all time and his nickname ‘Prosperity’ a mockery of his failings as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Visit Lincolnshire’s libraries or check their catalogues via the Internet and it seems that only one author has attempted a biography, and he was an American in 1966. It is true that some episodes in Robinson’s life seem like a script from TV’s Blackadder. His ‘all-but-crazy wife’ disrupted his career with many bouts of hypochondria but her good points included a hefty inheritance (including Nocton).
He had to buy his first seat in the Commons (Carlow near Dublin) but later supported electoral reform on the grounds that "it would be very advantageous to Birmingham to be represented in Parliament". And if his chaotic premiership did not win him enduring fame, it at least secured him a £3,000 pension and a peerage.
But it was a different story in the dark days of 1809 when the wars against Napoleon were not going well and the young Robinson, a Cambridge graduate and Lincoln’s Inn barrister, now MP for Ripon, earned a junior government post after staunch public support for the Duke of Wellington.
In 1812 Robinson began a rise through the Board of Trade which led him on to the Chancellorship of the Exchequer (1823-27). Here he cut back on more than 300 prohibitive tariffs, made the tax system more efficient, took tentative steps towards freer trade, and promoted Anglo-American co-operation (despite two wars in 40 years).
He helped turn post-war slump into pre-Victorian ‘prosperity’ through a natural optimism and a deep belief in the strength of what people were coming to understand as the ‘British economy’. Personally popular on all sides of the House, with a voice described as having a ‘singing’ quality and turns of phrase later on show as president of the Royal Literary Society, he must have made budget talks entertaining affairs.
For instance, a prediction of rapid economic growth to him was: ‘We have seen the opening of a brilliant dawn, and we may anticipate without hesitation the steady and glowing splendour of a meridian sky.’ Robinson could not have known it, but he was at his peak. Within months, an 1825 version of Black Wednesday plunged many banks and businesses into a credit crisis. His explanations of the inevitability of business cycles and the self-destructive effects of panic were in vain. Many found it easier to blame ‘Prosperity’ for the slump.
Then, as bad luck would have it, Robinson had the best opportunity of his career at the worst possible time. Amid family turmoil and cabinet calamity and still in the shadow of ‘recession’, was asked to form ghost of a government.
Robinson had been rocked by the death of a second child (both buried at Nocton) and the illness of his wife. He was talking of retiring when, in 1827, Prime Minister George canning died and crusty King George IV asked for an effort for the faction-ridden ministry going. For five months the new Premier’s persuasiveness kept a prickly cabinet in being.
The final wobble of the Cabinet was caused by the sinking of the Turkish fleet at Navarinoo Bay late in 1827. It is remembered as the key to Greek independence, but it was a shock to Robinson because the local British commander had gone beyond his brief. The one lighter moment of the premiership was the successful delivery of baby George Samuel at Downing Street on September 3rd 1827 (the baby’s middle name was a reference to the Bible’s Book of Samuel, which told of birth after hope had been abandoned).
If Robinson had been the nonentity portrayed to later generations, his political career would have been over in 1828. Yet for eight of the next 18 years he held further Cabinet posts, helping to modernise the political landscape of Britain.
He voted for Irish election reform (Catholic Emancipation) and was in the cabinets that delivered the Great Reform Act (ending ‘rotten borough’ seats), the abolition of slavery, and the end of the Corn Laws (‘the taxes on food’).
He urged Sir Robert Peel to bring back permanently an emergency wartime money-raiser called the Income Tax. His economic wisdom continued to be valued, as was his businesslike approach to ministerial tasks and his early use – now standard practice – of delegation.
Once again at the Board of Trade, he entrusted tasks to an eager ‘apprentice’ – William Ewart Gladstone. When not busy in Westminster or exercising political influence in lincolnshire from Nocton, Robinson spent time visiting relatives on the family’s Yorkshire estates (including Fountain’s Abbey) or taking the air at Brighton.
With his marriage in 1814, Robinson had acquired family ties that kept the gossips busy. Lady Sarah’s mother had been addicted to card game gambling (once mortgaging the Nocton estate to survive). Her father was the 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire, a musician and opera conductor and, in his wilder days, father of an illegitimate son at the age of 17. Although he could not inherit, the son grew up on the family estates and in later life became, as Henry Ellis, MP for Boston and candidate for Lincoln. His sponsor was none other than ‘brother in law’ Robinson.
Lady Sarah herself often feared she was dying and was at times erratic in the care of her children. But, despite their problems, the Robinsons were a devoted couple. Nocton was a main family base. Their Downing Street son was educated there and he later continued to improve the Estate while pursuing a political career of his own.
The family’s efforts at Nocton are still very evident today, where their almshouses, school and cottage rows can still be seen. Disaster had struck in July 1834 when a 15-hour blaze destroyed the old hall, taking many of the Robinson papers with it. The village’s new fire engine was unable to save the building.
Robinson’s response was to plan a new hall and, over the next 10 years, an impressive replacement was created at a cost of £50,000. The Robinsons stayed at a remodelled Steard’s House on the estate while the work was going on. The grandest idea of all was a new church, but before he could start it Robinson died from a heart condition and influenza in 1859, aged 76.
Lady Sarah took over the project in his memory and there the church of All Saints stands today. Built from Ancaster stone in the medieval style, it features the couple’s tomb under a marble effigy of the ex-Premier, side-whiskered, in his parliamentary robes, and ‘lying peacefully as if asleep’.
The architect of the church was Sir George Gilbert Scott (whose first work has been St Nicholas’ in Newport, Lincoln). Links between Nocton and Ripon continued to grow. When a Cabinet reshuffle advanced him in the peerage once again in 1833, Robinson took the title of 1st Earl of Ripon.
His son inherited more estates there from his uncle, and a sister church to Nocton was built. Robinson’s son eventually became the 1st Marquess of Ripon. The family’s link with the Nocton estate ended with its sale in 1889. In later times parts of it became a military hospital and a nursing and residential home.
Why was ‘Prosperity’ Robinson’s career dealt with so harshly by history? It seems that, before becoming the Accidental Prime Minister he was already qualified to be the World’s Most Unlikeliest Politician. Part of his popularity among friends and opponents was his honesty in acknowledging both sides of an argument.
He displayed patience and persuasiveness to a fault. One critic said: ‘He tried honestly, but unavailingly, to let wrong die out without daring to call right into existence.’ His very discretion counted against him. Even without the hall fire there would probably have been no memoirs of letters justifying his decisions or rubbishing his rivals.
Another misfortune was to live in an age of political giants – a normal size seemed small by comparison. No political life would be complete without a whiff of scandal, which for Robinson came in1815 when his government post involving the Corn Laws made him a target of French Revolutionary-style public anger over food prices.
Blockading crowds were cleared away from Parliament by troops but some went on to the Robinson home nearby, failing to find him but wrecking windows and railings and terrorising staff. When the demonstrators returned the next day, armed servants and troops were inside, shots rang out and a midshipman and widow died. There were inquests and a trial, but no convictions.
What orders had Robinson given to his servants? Had he helped to arm them? Did he influence the outcome of the case? If Robinson’s circle knew the answers they weren’t saying. And if Robinson did leave any records, they would have been among the ashes of Nocton old hall.
Nocton Hall - falls at hands of arsonists
Historic Hall gutted by fire
(This extract was taken from: The Lincolnshire Echo - Monday, October 25th, 2004 - Lincolnshire Echo Picture references: 4-6920-20 and 4-6920-5) |
The burnt out shell of the Grade II Listed Nocton Hall - 25 Mar 2005
[copyright Geoff Hall]
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Arsonists have today been blamed for a fire which destroyed a 160-year-old building. Fire ravaged Nocton Hall just days before council officers were due to take action against its owners, who had been accused of letting the hall fall into disrepair.
Police are now investigating exactly how the fire at the Grade II listed building began. Meanwhile, people living in Nocton Village, east of Lincoln, said the hall had become a target for vandals and the blaze was 'inevitable'.
More than 75 firefighters battled the blaze for three hours after it broke out at around 11.45pm on Saturday night. Crews were still at the scene until Sunday afternoon. Firefighter John Taylor said the fire had destroyed almost all of the hall. "We were faced with the building well alight, it was a well-developed fire when we arrived at 11.45pm", he said. “We had ten crews here at the height of the incident. It was under control by 2.30am and we are now in the early stages of investigating how it started. The roof has collapsed and the building is dangerous”.
Residents from the Cottage Residential Home, opposite the hall, were evacuated in the early hours. Most of the 24 residents were taken by ambulance to Lincoln County Hospital. Deputy manager of the home, Natasha Doughty, said the evacuation had left some residents shaken up. "We were half way through evacuating people when at around 3.30am the fire brigade gave us the all clear, so only 13 residents had gone," she said. "We had to take the residents in ambulances past the fire because it was the only way out. The hall has been a target for vandals for a long time".
The stone hall was built in 1841 and Frederick Robinson – the only Lincolnshire man ever to be elected Prime Minister – once lived there. The Victorian building was once used as part of the RAF hospital. More recently it was a residential home.
Last year the current owners, Leda Properties, were granted planning permission to turn it into a private home. But the hall had become derelict and on September 28th Leda were served with an urgent works notice by North Kesteven District Council. The order required Oxfordshire-based Leda to maintain the property and keep it secure. But no work had been carried out before the deadline of October 15th and council contractors had begun the work themselves – and were planning to send the bill to Leda.
Planning and building control officers were today at the scene assessing the damage. District council spokesman Julie Wetton said: “Our planning officers visited the site to check whether work had started and it had not. We confirmed with the owner’s agent that nothing was in place to start work. "We were instructing our contractors to go in and do the work and recoup the costs from the owner. But events have now taken over us".
Villager Elsie Horton had worked the neighbouring RAF hospital. She was sad to see a piece of the village’s history destroyed: "I heard the commotion and looked outside to see the ambulances coming", she said. "Then my neighbour told me what had happened. I worked at the hospital most of my life and when that closed I cleaned Nocton Hall. It’s part of my life, I just can’t believe it. It’s Nocton’s history, now it’s gone and it’s very sad".
Peter and Liz Murray live opposite the hall and say the loss of the building would be devastating for the village. Mr Murray took photographs of the hall as it was engulfed by flames. "Peter was woken by the sound of the roof collapsing at about 1am," said Mrs Murray, a consultant oncologist at Lincoln County Hospital. "Then our neighbours called and told us what had happened. They had been woken by the fire engines taking water out of the beck that runs through the grounds. The hall was the heart of Nocton and people will be devastated by this".
Leda Properties bought Nocton Hall in 2000 when it was a residential home after the former owner went bankrupt. Leda also own the RAF hospital site behind the hall. Villagers say the fire was inevitable after the hall had been left to fall into disrepair and had become an easy target for vandals. They say the hall had been looted of anything of value. Mrs Horton said: "For the past few years it has just been left vacant. Vandals have been in and smashed the windows and doors. People have been complaining that it has not been secure".
Mrs Murray said that she had called the police last Tuesday evening after she heard people ransacking the building. "We heard sounds of breaking wood and people smashing their way into the hall," she said. "There was lots of shouting, the glass had been smashed and door panels kicked through. We moved here 9 years ago when the hall was a residential home. "The grounds were beautiful and it was a lovely site to be in. Over the past few years it has fallen to rack and ruin. It has been vandalised and stripped of anything of value, the fireplaces and the mahogany staircases – all stolen".
Footnote:Leda Properties Ltd: Registered Office: Marcham Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 1TZ. Trading at: 144 High St, Sutton Courtenay, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4AX. Company No: 01257376. Incorporated: 06/05/1976.
Nature of Business: 5030 - Sale of Motor Vehicle Parts etc; 0111 - Grow Cereals and other crops; 7020 - Letting of Own Property.
Leda Properties contracted SLR Consulting Ltd (www.slrconsulting.co.uk) to carry out a landscape and visual appraisal of the 70 acre site at Nocton, near Lincoln, and to provide concepts for a residential master plan. The site is adjacent to the grounds of Nocton Hall, which forms part of the conservation area. The development site itself is a disused RAF Hospital and SLR has also audited this site for potential environmental liabilities. [Outlook Leaflet - Summer 2002]
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Nocton Hall - 2nd World War and beyond
Nocton Hospital
In 1948, Nocton Hall and about 100 acres of adjoining land were requisitioned by the Air Ministry. The Hall (used as the living quarters for the female officers of the RAF Medical staff), wards and other buildings were fully renovated. Married quarters for officers and men were also built. This General Military Hospital became part of a 740-bed RAF medical facility until 1984.
The hospital was then leased to the United States Airforce as a wartime contingency hospital during the Gulf War. More than 1,300 US medical staff were sent to the hall - many were billeted at RAF Scampton. In all that period, only 35 casualties had to be treated.
RAF Nocton Hall was finally handed back to the British Government in September 1995. It was then bought by a private owner who turned the hall into a residential home.
Nocton Estate
The Nocton Estate came under the ownership of a company - Agricultural Estates Ltd. F Le Neve Foster advised on 9th July 1962 (in a letter to one Mr Ireson):
“So far as I recollect, the Estate, with other large farms, was sold by Dennis and Sons to a public company floated by Hatry in 1920 to which the public were invited to subscribe on the basis of a valuation by Knight, Frank and Rutley. This flotation has particular interest because I believe it was the only occasion on which the Public were invited to subscribe to a purely farming enterprise. It was not a success and never paid a dividend.”
From 1948 the Company commenced to renovate and repair the houses and buildings, which over the years were brought into good condition. The horses were replaced by a fleet of sixty tractors, twelve combines, pick up balers, a fleet of lorries, sugar beet harvesters, mechanical potato planters, and other modern machines and this fully mechanised the Estate.
The light railway was later removed and some twenty miles of roadways laid, thereby enabling potatoes to be loaded direct from field to factory. Indoor potato stores were erected and buildings altered for controlling chitting of seed potatoes. Two corn dryers were erected which with the storage capacity of the Mill could hold 4,500 tons.
The company has also paid particular attention to the development of the social amenities in the village and large halls, each with a Club licence for serving drinks, were provided in Nocton and Dunston.
Nocton, it is very evident, has seen more changes than many an English village so deep in the heart of the country. Formerly bound up in the fortunes of the Hall, Nocton witnessed large-scale commercial farming. It was part of a progressive era in agricultural history, though to see its cottages, a gracious farm or two, a tiny post-office, the quiet stone walls and colourful cottage gardens, one might imagine it to be olde-worlde, peaceful, and untouched by the modern spirit of change.
Nocton Hall - era of Hodgson and Dennis & Sons
Hodgson
John Hodgson created a lake in the Park (which was later filled in by the Air Ministry). After Mr Hodgson’s death, the Estate was kept on by his family, being managed by Mr Norman Hodgson until 1919, when it was purchased by Messrs WH Dennis and Sons of Kirton.Dennis & Sons
Up to this date all the farms on the estate had been let to tenants, but from now onwards Messrs Dennis commenced to get possession of the farms (except Nocton Rise) and within a few years they were farming the estate as a whole. They erected the concrete corn mill for storing and grinding corn, and making up cattle rations.
It was Messrs Dennis who laid a two foot gauge light railway, extending to about 30 miles over the Estate – principally on the Fens – and connected this to the mill at Railhead with a siding for loading into railway trucks. They also built the Maintenance Sheds, Engine Shed and Bag Store, and engaged maintenance staff for repairing implements and shoeing horses. In those days over 200 horses were used on the Estate.
Nocton Hall - Marquess of Ripon
Philanthropist
The Marquess' first act, after his mother's death, was to employ Sir Gilbert Scott to complete and beautify the church in her memory, particularly in the work of the great west window. To link to a website for All Saints Church, click here: allsaintsnocton.org.uk
The Marquess also built the present school on the site of a farmstead, known as Scarcliff, and threw open the rest of the site for a village green. A chestnut tree was planted by Lord de Gray, the Marquis’s only son, famous as one of the best shots in the country, when he came of age in 1873.
In 1874 the Marquess built the Old Four Row and in 1878 he built the 'new' Ten Row. At this time the Great Northern and Great Eastern Railway Company had begun to lay the railway line which passes through Nocton and many of the navvies lodged in the village so that the population of the parish at the census taken in 1881 numbered 628 – the highest ever.
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| Old Four Row |
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| The 'new' Ten Row |
In 1880 the Marquess was appointed Viceroy of India and the Rev Footman was Vicar of Nocton. The big farmers were Robert Wright, John Mills, Georg Melbourne, George Woodhouse, Edward Howard and William Roberts, besides the Daltons and the Thorpes. There was a tennis club, also a cricket club and an annual flower show was held.
Nocton Wood was then famous for its lilies of the valley, and Nocton Heath famous for its Lincoln Longwool sheep and Lincoln Red cattle. The names of Caswell, Dean, Howard and Wright were as well known in the agricultural world of South America, South Africa and on the continent as they were in Lincolnshire. Early in the 20th Century a flock of sheep founded in 1790 on Nocton Heath was sold to Buenos Aires for £30,000.
In 1889 the Marquess of Ripon sold the estate to Mr John Hodgson of Bradford. It is said the Marquess sold the estate because he could not afford to keep it in good condition and repair.
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Nocton Hall - Lady Ripon and Church of All Saints
Lady Ripon
In 1862 the Countess pulled down the eighteenth century church of St Peter, which had had so short and troubled a career.
The Countess went on to build the present fine church of All Saints in memory of her husband. This church was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and is one of the finest modern churches in Lincolnshire. It was consecrated by Bishop Jackson on December 16th 1862.
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| All Saints Church, Nocton |
In 1867 Lady Ripon died at the age of 74, leaving the bulk of her property to her son, who had been created Marquess of Ripon.
Nocton Hall - 'Prosperity' Robinson
Rt Hon FJ Robinson MP
Lady Sarah married the Rt Hon Frederick John Robinson on September 1st 1814. He was the second son of Lord Grantham and educated at Harrow and St John’s College, Cambridge.
The public career of 'Prosperity Robinson is well known. Initially MP for Ripon and Joint Paymaster of the Forces, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1823 –1827. He became Viscount Goderich of Nocton on April 28th 1827 and was Prime Minister from August 1827 to January 1828. He later inherited the title of Earl of Ripon (1833) and as a member of Sir Robert Peel’s cabinet, moved the second reading in the House of Lords of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws on May 25th 1846.
One of the things at Nocton to claim the attention of the Robinsons, was the premature decay that had overtaken the church, built only 40 years before. The Minutes of the vestry meetings between 1818 – 1821 record many repairs and improvements. Mr Robinson seems to have borne two-thirds of the expense while the balance was defrayed by a rate. About the same time, the Lady Sarah arranged for all the village children to attend the school – where Justina Brackenbury (then Mrs Edward Seeley), had succeeded to her father – on payment of a penny a week, Lady Sarah paying the difference herself.
The first ordnance survey map of Nocton was published in 1824. About this time the old road to Dunston by Burton Plantation was closed and the present Bridle Path provided in its place. On the ordnance map the carriage drive from Nocton Hall to Dunston Pillar is clearly defined.
In 1832, the Nocton, Potterhanworth and Branston Commissioners contracted a steam-engine to try and improve the workings of the scoop-wheel. An old wind-engine had been used initially to lift the waters from the Fen, but was found to be inadequate. They obtained an Act of Parliament giving them further powers of taxation, successfully opposing an application of the Witham Drainage Commissioners for an injunction to restrain the use of steam. The appellants alleged that the greater quantity of water to be thrown into the river with greater velocity would imperil the safety of the banks.
On Thursday June 12th 1834, the steam engine of 40 horse power which cost £4,000 was put in motion in the presence of a vast number of persons. It’s operations were soon impeded for want of water, as it made light work of clearing out the quantity which had been accumulated for the experiment.
Fire damages Windmills and Old Hall
In 1827 the old windmill was taken down and a new one erected on Mill Corner, but this was burnt down in October 1833. The third mill was erected on the same site and pulled down in 1904.
Following the destruction of the mill and another by fire, the Earl of Ripon – as the Lord of Nocton had become – ordered a fire engine of the latest design. This had only just arrived from London when, on Tuesday July 15th 1834 a more serious fire broke out at the Hall.
Lord and Lady Ripon had arranged to come from Carlton Gardens on the Thursday as they were expecting a visit from the Bishop of Lincoln, but about nine o’clock on the Tuesday evening as Richard Semper and other labourers were coming from the Fen, they saw flames bursting from the roof of the Hall.
The alarm was given and the new fire engine brought out, all to no purpose. The lead roof was lined with reeds which burnt fiercely and the molten lead descended on all sides. The water from the engine produced no sensible effect and the servants turned their attention to rescuing what furniture they could. Among the salvage was a chest from the library ticketed ‘to be saved first in case of fire’. It proved to contain the playthings and other relics of little Eleanor Robinson the only daughter of the house, a promising child who had died in 1826 at the age of eleven.
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| Sketch of the ruins of Nocton Hall - AWN Pugin |
When the flames were finally extinguished about noon the following day, only a low fragment of the outer walls remained. The damage was estimated at £25,000.
The 'Poor' House
In 1833 the Poor House was built at the east end of Wellhead Lane and after passing from this use, was used as the village Post Office for many years.
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| The Old Post Office |
Old Ten Row
In 1840 the Old Ten Row was built and in 1841 (7 years after the destruction of the old Hall) Lord and Lady Ripon received a petition from the tenants begging them to rebuild the Hall and offering – as an inducement – to do all the carting of the materials.
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| Old Ten Row |
Rebuilding the Hall
William Shearbourne of Dorking (son of Joseph Shearbourne, the Estate carpenter), was engaged as architect and instructed to prepare plans somewhat on the lines of Longhills House near Branston where Lord and Lady Ripon often stayed since the destruction of the old Hall.
On October 26th 1841 the foundation stone was laid by Viscount Goderick, the son of the Earl and Countess, who was only fourteen years old having been born at 10 Downing Street while his father was Prime Minister. The wall facings were of local stone from Dunston and the mouldings and dressings were of Ancaster stone. After the stone laying ceremony all the estate tenants were entertained to dinner in the school and all the old women of Nocton and Dunston were regaled with a tea party.
Lord Ripon withdrew from public life and died at his other residence on Putney Heath on January 28th 1859. He was buried at Nocton on February 4th 1859.
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| Foundation stone on Nocton Hall |
Nocton Hall - the elder son of the Third Earl
Robert Hobart
Henry Lewis Hobart's elder brother Robert, was born May 6th 1760. He had acquired distinction as a soldier and politician and was appointed Governor of Madras in 1795.
On his recall in 1798, he was summoned to the House of Lords by his father’s second title of Lord Hobart and in 1804 succeeded to the earldom and to the Nocton Estate. He made several alterations closing the old road to the Fen via Laurel Walk and Abbey Field and made all vehicles go round by Long Holt Lane. He planted the triple avenue of elms, leading from the sunken fence on the east side of the Nocton Hall towards Abbey Field, and improved the Hall gardens.
Lord Hobart removed the disused and dilapidated lantern from the top of Dunston Pillar and on July 18th 1810 replaced it with a colossal statue of George III to commemorate the fiftieth of the reign of his Majesty (this statue is now in Lincoln Castle grounds).
Robert died on the 4th February 1816 in consequence of a fall from his horse in St James’s Park. He was buried at Nocton and his monument, at the west end of the south aisle of the church, recounts the various high offices of state he held from time to time.
His widow survived him by thirty-five years and was buried at Nocton on 27th October 1851. She was the second wife of Robert and had one child, a daughter Lady Sarah Albinia Louise, born on 22nd February 1793 on whom Nocton had been settled. The late Earl’s titles passed to a nephew.
Nocton Hall - the younger son of the Third Earl
Henry Lewis Hobart
The younger son of the third Earl of Buckinghamshire was instituted to the Vicarage of Nocton on April 8th 1815 and to the Deanery of Windsor 1816. Henry Lewis Hobart had seen little of his parents, who lived mostly in smart London society. The children were often left at Nocton in the care of nanny Field, the Steward’s wife, to whom the Dean erected a monument. This can still be seen on the West wall of the present vestry.
During his office as Dean of Windsor, Henry officiated at the funerals of three Kings: George III, George IV, and William IV. One of the Kings died while Henry was in residence at Nocton - and the story goes that Henry hurried to the hayfield, exhorting the haymakers to make haste, as he wanted the horses to take him to Windsor to bury the King.
Henry Lewis Hobart died at Nocton vicarage on May 8th 1846.
Nocton Hall - George Hobart
HRH The Duke of York
Soon after the Hobart’s arrived at the Hall they began entertaining on a grand scale. On Saturday September 27th 1766, HRH The Duke of York, a younger brother of King George III, spent a weekend at Nocton and danced with Mrs Hobart in the Lincoln Assembly Rooms on the Monday evening.
Masquerade
On the 29th December 1767 the Hobarts gave a grand masquerade at Nocton Hall which may have been a house-warming to celebrate their advent. The guests were met at the door by a Turk in a white bearskin, who took their tickets. They were received by Mr Hobart as 'Pan' – his dress dark brown satin, made quite close to his shape, shag breeches, cloven feet, a round shock wig, a mask, a leopard skin over his back, and in his hand a shepherd’s pipe. Mrs Hobart was dressed in a muslin petticoat, puffed very small and spotted with spangles. Several dancers, including the hostess, had two costumes. Among the guests were Lord Exeter, Lord and Lady Vere Bertio, Lady Betty Chaplin, Sir Cecil and Lady Wray, the Huttons, the Sibthorps, the Custs, the Amcotts, the Neviles and all the great Lincolnshire families, all in fancy dress.
Creator of Modern Nocton
The Honourable George Hobart, who may be called the creator of modern Nocton, was the oldest son of the second marriage of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. He married Albania oldest daughter and coheiress of Lord and Lady Vere Bertie of Branston and he was for many years MP for Beeralston in Devon. In 1762 he was appointed secretary to the Embassy at St Petersburgh, by his half brother, John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was ambassador to the Russian Court 1762 – 1765.
The spirit of “lands improvement” was abroad in Lincolnshire and the scheme for draining the Fens may have suggested the development of the Nocton Estate. To enable him to effect this with more ease and economy, he represented himself as patron of the Vicarage, though the Crown had presented every incumbant since 1667.
Church & Vicarage
By a deed of exchange dated January 6th 1773, he gave the site of the present vicarage and church in exchange for the old vicarage and church which stood in inconvenient proximity to the Hall. He destroyed every vestige of the old church, which had been dedicated to St Peter, except the font and Judge Ellis’s monument. The site of the churchyard is easily recognised by the level of the ground to the south-west of Nocton Hall.
The new vicarage was an enlargement of what was then known as Widow Storey’s homestead and the church, a mean structure, was erected where the present church now stands, and was consecrated on July 20th 1775.
In 1776 George Hobart, still representing himself as “patron of the vicarage of the parish church of Nocton and also impropriator of two-thirds of the great tithes thereof” obtained a private Act of Parliament for the enclosure of open fields and the commutation of the vicar’s tithes. The preamble recited that the open, unenclosed lands of the parish in heath, field and fen contained by estimation 4,500 acres or thereabouts.
Countess Albinia
Tradition describes his Countess Albinia, as a notorious gambler and a devotee of fare. When she won she went abroad in her sedan-chair, attended by gorgeous lackeys, to scatter largess among the poor and when she lost, Nocton had to be mortgaged (January 1786) and Branston had to be sold (1787), with the balance of the purchase money (after paying off her debts of honour), being laid out on some small properties at Dunston. Her breakfast parties, given at her villa adjoining Buckingham Palace – the site of which villa is now occupied by Hobart Place – were famous at the beginning of the 19th Century.
In 1789 another Act of Parliament was passed for embanking the enclosed fenland in the parishes of Nocton, Potterhanworth and Branston. The award of the Commissioners was dated January 11th 1793 and the works involved the erection of the wind engine which served for 40 years to pump the waters of the Fen into the Witham.
In 1793 the Earl of Buckinghamshire died and the Honourable George Hobart succeeded his half-brother as the third Earl.
The autumn of 1793 saw the first beginnings of a regular school at Nocton. In that year a certain John Brackenbury of Gedney, having quarrelled with his father came to lodge at the Plough Inn near Potterhanworth and married Alice Tether, daughter of the tenant of the Manor Farm.
Brackenbury had been well educated and at the invitation of the curate, Dr Willis, went to live at the vicarage and started a private school there. Soon afterwards he moved into a house, converted from two cottages at the east end of Town Street, and obtained leave to build a school on some waste ground at his own expense, the materials being carted free by his neighbours.
George Hobart, the third Earl of Buckinghamshire died on November 14th 1804, and was buried at Nocton on November 21st.
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