Hodsock Priory
| Hodsock Priory | |
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| General information | |
| Coordinates | 53°21′42″N 1°04′56″W / 53.361667°N 1.082222°W |
| Designations | Grade II listed building |
Hodsock Priory is an English country house in Nottinghamshire, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Worksop, England, and 1-mile (1.6 km) south of Blyth. Despite its name, it is not and never has been a priory. Hodsock is renowned for its snowdrops in early spring.
Hodsock has been occupied since at least the Bronze Age and evidence of occupation from the Bronze Age, the Romans and Saxons is found in the gardens. Hodsock was mentioned in the Domesday Book: In ODESACH. hb.Vlsy .ii . car tre ad gld - 'In Hodsock Wulfsi had 2 carucates of land taxable'. (A carucate was 120 acres (0.49 km2) of land.)
The Cressey family, who owned Hodsock from the mid-12th century for more than 200 years, were powerful enough to entertain kings of England - Henry II, John and Edward I. In the early 13th century they founded a leper hospital in Blyth, part of which can still be seen.
The Clifton family took over the estate at the beginning of the 15th century and owned it through 14 generations to 1765. However, it was not their main home, even though they entertained Henry VIII there in 1541, and they spent little on its upkeep. The family fought with the Royalists in the English Civil War in the 1640s and was heavily fined. Following this, the house became little more than a farmhouse.
In 1765, Hodsock was sold for the only time in its history by Sir Gervase Clifton, 6th Baronet. It was bought by the Mellish family, owners of a neighbouring estate at Blyth. They combined the estates to give a total landholding of 20,000 acres (81 km2). William Mellish (d.1771) and his son, Charles, were leading Nottinghamshire figures. Charles was a keen historian but died in 1796 before completing his history of the county. His eldest son, Joseph, had been disinherited due to his extravagance and Hodsock passed to another son, Colonel Henry Francis Mellish, a lover of racing whose horses won the St Leger in 1804 and 1805. Because of gambling debts, Henry lost the Blyth estate.
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