Alfreton Hall
| Alfreton Hall | |
|---|---|
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| General information | |
| Construction started | 1724 |
| Completed | 1725 |
Alfreton Hall is a country house in Alfreton, Derbyshire. It was at the heart of local social and industrial history in the county. The history of the estate goes back to Norman times, but by the 17th century it was owned by the Morewood family, who were linked to local industry, mainly in coal mining.
The original hall was on the site of Hall Farm to the east of the present building and was the seat of the Lord of the Manor. A new hall was built on the estate around 1724–25 by Rowland Morewood, with an additional wing added in 1855 by William Palmer-Morewood (architect Benjamin Wilson). This made the hall a very substantial property.
Rowland Morewood built Alfreton Hall in about 1725. He was born in 1682. His father was John Morewood who owned the Alfreton estate and his mother was Barbara Palmer. He was educated at Cambridge University in 1700 and in 1717 he married Mary Wigley. He was the High Sheriff of Derby in 1706-1707. The couple had three sons but two died leaving the second son George to inherit Alfreton Hall.
George Morewood was born in 1719. In 1768 at the age of 49 he married Ellen Goodwin who was the daughter of Richard Goodwin of Ashbourne. She was 27 years old. They had only one child who died soon after birth. Shortly after they were married they were both painted by the famous artist George Romney and these portraits are shown. These paintings once hung in the dining room of Alfreton Hall.
In 1792 George died and left the Alfreton estate to his wife Ellen. She subsequently married Reverend Henry Case who took the name Morewood. They both lived at Alfreton Hall for the next 30 years. An interesting description is given of the house in 1812 at the time they were in residence.
"The present mansion house does considerable credit to the taste and liberality of its erector, Rowland Morewood, Esq., who, about 80 years ago, caused the old building, which was falling into decay, to be pulled down, and built, at a little distance to the west, the present stone house. It commands a pleasing prospect from the north and west fronts. The adjoining grounds, according to their extent, are well laid out and the rooms within are furnished with a considerable collection of paintings, some of them by the best masters. Beneath the house is a piece of woodland, the upper part of which is intersected by two avenues; one of them which branches off to the other on the right is terminated by a Temple of Diana, and a bust, and the other of them by an obelisk, above and below by a piece of water, the boundaries of which, not being seen from the farthest point of view, the imagination is left to form to itself the idea of unlimited expansion and transform a little fish pond into an extensive lake. Below are several rural moss huts and a grotto built of different mineral productions of all that diversity of form and colour exhibited by the mineral substances of the Peak. It is of an octagonal figure and painted within are several representations of scenes in Walton's "Angler"."
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