Oakes Park, Sheffield

Oakes Park also known as The Oakes is a 17th-century English country house which is now used as a Christian holiday centre for young people between the ages of 8 and 18. It is set in extensive grounds which make it very difficult to be seen by the general public. It is situated on Norton Lane in the suburb of Norton within the City of Sheffield in England. The house is a Grade II* listed building as are the adjoining terrace walls, steps and gateway. The gateway and adjoining walls at garden entrance to Oakes Park and the gardens are on the register of buildings at risk. The gateway to the house is at present being repaired.

The first building on the site was mentioned in deeds of 1590 when John Parker was the owner. The Parkers were followed by Robert Boulton who purchased the houses for £355 and then Henry Wigfall of Eckington who paid £450 in 1624. The present house was built around the year 1668 by John Lee of nearby Hazelbarrow Hall for his bride Barbara, he purchased the "newly built messuage" for £1,600. Unfortunately Barbara died the same year and the house was sold to Francis Barker of Lees Hall at Norton Lees in 1672. Barker lived at the house with his wife Ann for only a short time and the house changed owners several times in a short period. In 1681 John Morewood sold the house to his wife’s brother Henry Gill for £1,240, whose eldest daughter Elizabeth married Richard Bagshawe in 1699.

The Bagshawe family would remain as owners of Oakes Park for the next 288 years (until 1987). Three sons of Richard Bagshawe and Elizabeth Gill (Richard, William and John) held the Oakes estates in succession until the failure to produce an heir meant it was inherited in 1801 by a distant cousin of the family William Chambers Darling, a Hull doctor. Darling changed his name to Bagshawe, was knighted in 1806 and undertook a substantial redesign of the house using the Lancaster architect Joseph Badger, whose changes included a complete re-fronting of the house. He also embarked on large-scale modifications to the parkland around the house using Napoleonic War prisoners to dig out a lake, construct a walled garden and enclose over 100 acres. The terrace in front of the house was designed by Francis Chantrey while the garden is thought to have been planned by John Nash. William Chambers Bagshawe also stocked the house with much fine furniture and antiques. These included paintings by George Frederic Watts, George Stubbs and Michael Dahl, furniture by Thomas Sheraton, George Hepplewhite and Thomas Chippendale plus beautiful glass and silverware.

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Wikipedia