Whitley Hall

Whitley Hall is a 16th-century mansion which since 1969 has been converted into a restaurant and then a hotel. It is situated in the northern rural district of the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. The small hamlet of Whitley lies in the countryside between the suburbs of Grenoside, Chapeltown and Ecclesfield some 7.5 km (4.7 mi) north of the city centre. The hall is a Grade II* listed building.

Present day Whitley Hall dates from the 1580s, however a dwelling was present on the site prior to this. This dwelling, known as Launder House was first recorded in a deed of 1406 when it was transferred from John Cartwright to William Robinson. Launder House was also known as Launderhouse, Lownderhouse and Loundhouse over the years, in 1487 it passed into the hands of Thomas Parker who held the property in Copyhold from the Lord of the Manor of Sheffield in return for ploughing and harvesting the land. The arrival of the Parkers at Launder House signalled the start of a 135-year association with the site over six generations.

It was the grandson of Thomas Parker, also known as Thomas who commenced the extensive rebuilding in the mid part of the 16th century which turned Launder House into Whitley Hall. Thomas’ son William is believed to have finished the rebuilding as a carving over one of the new doors reads,”Willm Parker : Made this Worke 1584”. In 1622 Thomas Shiercliffe became the owner of the Whitley Hall estate which beside the Hall also included a corn mill, dovecote, smelting house, eight fields, two acres of woodland and four cottages. The Hall remained the property of the Shiercliffe family until the early part of the 19th century.

A local legend states that Mary, Queen of Scots, spent a night at Whitley Hall in the 1580s while in captivity at Sheffield Castle. This rumour was first reported by Jonathan Eastwood in his History of Ecclesfield of 1862. However, there is no documentary evidence to back up the claim.

Around the year 1790 the Hall was leased out by the Shiercliffes to John Rider who turned it into a boys' boarding school. The school is thought to have housed approximately 45 pupils with the most famous pupil being the railway engineer Sir John Fowler who travelled from nearby Wadsley to attend between 1826 and 1833. Fowler noted of his time at Whitley Hall later in life: “I was fairly quick in elementary scholarship, and in mental arithmetic was decidedly beyond the average of boys and men a gift which was of great convenience and value in after life.”

...
Wikipedia