Worksop Manor

Worksop Manor is a Grade I listed 18th-century country house in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire. It stands in one of the four contiguous estates in the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire. Traditionally, the Lord of the Manor of Worksop may assist a British monarch at his or her coronation by providing a glove and putting it on the monarch's right hand and supporting his or her right arm. Worksop Manor was the seat of the ancient Lords of Worksop.

The building is constructed in 2 and 3 storeys of ashlar with hipped slate roofs. The house forms a quadrangle approximately 25 bays wide by 14 bays deep.

The Talbot family had owned Worksop Manor since the 14th century. Its manor house was for some time in 1568 the prison of Mary, Queen of Scots.

In the 1580s a new house was built on the site for the very wealthy George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, probably designed by Robert Smythson. It was a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. At the same time Smythson also designed the associated Worksop Manor Lodge which survived in substantially original form until 2007 when it was burnt down and it is currently being restored. King James stayed at the new house in 1603 on his way south to take the throne of England. At the end of the 17th century the house passed by marriage to the Duke of Norfolk, in whose family it would remain until 1840. In 1701 the 8th Duke of Norfolk doubled the size of the house, built stables and laid out large gardens. The 9th Duke also further improved the gardens. Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk had the house renovated but it burned down in 1761.

Later that year, James Paine was commissioned to build a replacement for the burnt-out Elizabethan mansion. He planned a roughly square mansion with a vast hall in the central courtyard which would have been one of the largest houses ever built in England, had it been completed. Only one wing had been finished when work stopped on the house in 1767, but even this was on a palatial scale. On the death of the 9th Duke in 1777, the estate passed to a distant cousin, aged 57 and living in Surrey. Neither he nor his immediate successors lived at Worksop and it became neglected. The 12th Duke gave it to his son, the Earl of Surrey, in 1815.

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