Clumber Park

Clumber Park
The Lime Tree Avenue at Clumber Park, the longest of its kind in Europe. Planted in 1840, 2 miles long with 1,296 common limes (Tilia x europaea)
Location	Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
Nearest city	Nottingham
OS grid	SK625755
Coordinates	53°16′23″N 1°03′50″W / 53.273°N 1.064°W / 53.273; -1.064Coordinates: 53°16′23″N 1°03′50″W / 53.273°N 1.064°W / 53.273; -1.064
Area	1,537 hectares (3,800 acres)
Operated by	National Trust
Open	Park: 7.00am to dusk. Other facilities have more restricted times.
Status	SSSI (for map see Map)
Other information	Postcode: S80 3AZ
Website	www.nationaltrust.org.uk/clumber-park/

Clumber Park is a country park in the Dukeries near Worksop in Nottinghamshire, England. It was the seat of the Pelham-Clintons, Dukes of Newcastle. It is owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

Clumber, mentioned in Domesday Book was monastic property in the Middle Ages, but later came into the hands of the Holles family. In 1709 it was enclosed as a deer park by John Holles - 4th Earl of Clare, 3rd Earl of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle. Clumber house, by the River Poulter at the centre of the park, became a hunting lodge, but two generations later, about 1759, the heir to the estate, Lord Lincoln, decided to make it one of his principal mansions. Over the next few years, work on the house and park proceeded, under the supervision of a carpenter and builder named Fuller White (although he is likely to have been working to plans from architect Stephen Wright). White was dismissed in 1767, and Wright took charge of the project, replacing some of the 1760s features in the 1770s. The project was still not complete when Wright died, and some features in and around the park may have been designed by his successor, John Simpson, in the 1780s.

When, in March 1879 a serious fire destroyed much of Clumber House, the 7th Duke of Newcastle had it rebuilt to designs by Charles Barry, Jr. Another fire, in 1912, caused less damage, but the effects of the First World War and the Great Depression forced the abandonment of the mansion, which, like many other houses during this period, was demolished in 1938.Charles Boot of Henry Boot Construction, was contracted to demolish the house and he removed a vast array of statues, facades and fountains to his Derbyshire home, Thornbridge Hall, although most were lost to private buyers at auction. The Church of St Mary, a Grade I listed Gothic Revival chapel built by the 7th Duke of Newcastle and a four-acre walled kitchen garden with a glass house measuring some 450 feet in length survive.