Cutthorpe Tour (Page 4)
Old houses still standing within the village today include The Old Manor House,
pictured left, a tall imposing stone building located on the main road through the village not far from the village institute. This used to be called Cutthorpe Old Hall according to an
article in the Derbyshire Countryside magazine, summer 1955 edition.The article describes the restoration of the building by the Botham family (including Mr S. Botham who wrote a history of the village in 1971). The building was struck by lightning in 1943 and for several years thereafter it had remained derelict.
Probably built around 1625, the Old Manor House (formerly known as the Old Hall) was a residence of Ralph Clark, the first Mayor of Chesterfield. Unusually, the Old Manor House is a semi-detached property, and attached to the side of it is another house, a much lower building which is called rather confusingly Old Hall Cottage. Old Hall Cottage is thought to date from the 15th C, according to sale particulars, thus indicating that the Cottage may be older than the Old Manor House itself.
There is also an Old Hall Farm located virtually next door to Old Hall Cottage. Today this appears to be a private house and no longer a working farm. In a sale of 1910 of part of the Estates of Sir George Reresby Sitwell, Cutthorpe Old Hall Farm was included and itemized as a valuable mixed farm with good accommodation for dairying and stock rearing. The tenant was E. Botham and the property included house, outbuildings, yards, cottages and gardens and about 30 acres. The house was described as follows: "The genuine old Tudor house, now occupied as a farm home and cottages, is an interesting example of domestic architecture of a by-gone period, and is unspoilt by any attempt at modern restoration".
It has been confirmed by the present owner (2005) of Old Hall Farm, Mr David Catton, that this house used to be a pub known as The Travellers Rest. The pub is featured in the 1901 census, being run by Mr Richard Ruddock who originated from Norfolk and was described as a publican and iron works labourer with a wife and two children. The Sitwell Estates sale brochure mentioned above includes a map showing a property and fields owned by Brampton Brewery Co.
Quote from David Catton, the present owner of Old Hall Farm:
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"As the current occupier (owner) of the house called The Old Hall
Farm, I can inform you that this house was until shortly before WW2
The Traveller's Rest public house. In fact, if you look closely at the
end wall of the house facing the Main Road, you can still make out
the remnants of the painted pub sign on the wall. Unfortunately we
removed some of this when we added a bay window during the
renovations we have carried out since we purchased the property in
1998. At least it is still possible to pick out the name of the
publican, "Wright", in the right hand bottom corner of the sign.
Now whether our house is a genuine old Tudor house is an interesting question - one neighbour, Diana Chadwick, who is a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, certainly doesn't think so and I suspect that in 1910 the house was The Traveller's Rest. So which property was The Old Hall Farm - and was the name purloined and applied to our house after it lost its licence? A mystery yet to be solved . . . " |
Slightly further on are a few bungalows called Rosene Cottages, built in 1948, (pictured left) and a large old house called Rosene House. In this area previously was a croft owned by Mr Van Gemeren who had a rose-growing business.
Near the croft was Rosene Farm of Mr Ernest Crookes who had a champion herd of Large White Pigs (the Cutthorpe Herd) with which he won many awards. Mr Botham in his book states that these pigs won over 1220 prizes between 1921 and 1942. A sale of these prizewinning pigs was held in 1942.
The photo on the right shows one of these pigs, photograph kindly given by Mrs Anne Allsop.
For a story involving the Crookes Family of Rosene click here.
Cutthorpe Green
This is another distinct area which is marked on old maps and mentioned on some censuses. This area is down Green Lane to the left of the main road, opposite Rosene Cottages, and contains within it Cutthorpe Hall, a Grade II listed building, Hall Farm, Green Farm, the Dower House (Grade II Listed), and other houses and farm buildings. At the top end of the lane there is a house at each side.
An older Hall may have been located on the same site or close to the Cutthorpe Hall of today, at Cutthorpe Green. Evidence being that Mr S Botham refers to the remains of a small chapel there and a farm building in the same area adjacent to the Hall grounds which has an ecclesiastical appearance. According to an article written by Mr Roy Christian in the Derbyshire Life and Country magazine of October 1982, in this farm building: "There is what looks like a Norman door on the ground floor close to an external stone staircase leading to the main room on the first floor. Local tradition says it was a resting place for monks journeying along the ancient track between Beauchief Abbey and Louth Park Abbey in Lincolnshire".
A sketch of Cutthorpe Hall is pictured below:
Cutthorpe Hall is believed to be older than the house (featured above) which is called the Old Manor House and used to be called the Old Hall. Historians have deduced that Cutthorpe Hall
was once owned by the Foljambe family and was sold to the Heathcote family in 1614. A George Heathcote married the
daughter (Lydia) of Ralph Clark, the first Mayor of Chesterfield (former resident of the Old Manor House). Their son Gilbert Heathcote the noted Physician
and Botanist is said to have planted daffodils in the vicinity of Cutthorpe Hall in the 17th century, the descendents of which still flower in spring.
This description is adapted from the book 'The Derbyshire Country House', published by Maxwell Craven and Michael Stanley 2004: Cutthorpe Hall is a charming house which seems to have grown piecemeal from the later 16th century, although there is evidence of an older core. Built of sandstone under a stone slate roof, it has two storeys, the garden front has seven irregular bays and some mullioned windows. The main front has been Georgianized. Within, there are three very good oak panelled rooms; some decorative plasterwork of c. 1600 and a gallery or chapel in the attic. The Linacre family held it into the 16th century, when it passed to the Foljambes. In 1614 it was sold to a branch of the Heathcotes, Chesterfield municipal oligarchs. The family later inherited Barlborough Hall and assumed the surname and arms of Rodes. Cutthorpe Hall was sold around 1790 and tenanted with 250 acres by William Bowes Wright of the Great Longstone family who had two wives and a mistress. His widow married the French General Francois-Joseph d'Henin, a prisoner of war whom her husband had befriended. Cutthorpe Hall was later occupied by John Brown, and by F.J. Butcher between the wars.
Sale particulars of Cutthorpe Hall (1957) described it as "constructed of rough dressed local stone with a stone slated roof, is of a pleasing appearance typical of the houses erected during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Part of the present structure probably dates from the late 16th Century and exhibits several interesting Elizabethan features. Several of the rooms have the original oak floors and stone mullions, whilst the narrow winding Secondary Staircase, close to the rear entrance, is indicative of some antiquity. The low entrance door off the Oak Room is also characteristic of the early Elizabethan period".
Interestingly the sale particulars also include this: "Much of the Oak panelling dates from the original structure whilst that now in the Entrance Hall came from the secret chapel which was situated under the eaves during the times of unrest and was originally entered by means of a narrow opening above the Landing porch".
Part of Cutthorpe Hall
An item of research in the archives of Chesterfield Library (author not stated) titled "Cutthorpe Hall in the 17th Century" describes another interesting religious possibility. "A local tradition has it that a chapel existed in former days, at Cutthorpe Hall, which may be supported by the description of the Hall given in the record of listed buildings in Brampton. One of the features noted when surveyed in 1963 is 'the attic contains a gallery or chapel, originally pannelled and with a stone fire place'. Certain aspects of the history of the Heathcotes of Cutthorpe appear to lend support to the fact that the hall was used as a meeting house for dissenting protestants in the period prior to 1694. From 1688 all houses used for meetings of dissenters had to be registered, giving the name and address of the occupier, the type of meeting, and the name of the person certifying it. The Derbyshire Quarter Sessions Book includes in 1692, among the houses so recorded, that of Thomas Ogle of Cutthorpe". The author of this research in the library believes that after George Heathcote died (1685), his wife Lydia (formerly Clark) married Thomas Ogle who was the first dissenting minister to be appointed to the Unitarian Chapel in Chesterfield, of which the Clark family were prominent members.
The same unknown author writes that the Heathcote lands at Cutthorpe in 1839 were owned by the Rev. Cornelius Heathcote Reiston-Rhodes of Barlborough and Cutthorpe. He includes a map of the Heathcote Lands at that time, and states that the Hall and much of the land was in the occupation of Edward Belk.
In 1851 according to the same unknown author (details off the census), Edward Belk age 52 was living at Cutthorpe Green on a farm of 100 acres, and in another farm (90 acres) at Cutthorpe Green was William Crookes age 62.
At Cutthorpe Hall in 1881 lived the household of Mr William Flint, a farm bailiff. Also at Cutthorpe Green was John Mee a coal miner, Isaac Fisher a general labourer, and Thomas Crookes a farmer of 78 acres. In 1901 at Cutthorpe Hall lived farm bailiff Mr Nicodemus Bramwell with wife and family, and Mr James Wood a retired grocer with family. And residing also at Cutthorpe Green were the households of Thomas Hancock a farmer, Joseph Reddish a coal miner, and George Starkey a farm labourer.
The Dower House
The Dower House is located near Cutthorpe Hall and at one time was called The Still House. It is described as 'an early 17th century dower house of two storeys and attics, gables and mullioned windows'. This description is copied from the book 'The Derbyshire Country House', published by Maxwell Craven and Michael Stanley 2004.
It is in the grounds of the Dower House that the Heathcote daffodils grow. These are discussed in more detail in the section on Gilbert Heathcote by Judith Stubbs a former owner of the Dower House.
Daffodil Field
Mrs Judith Stubbs
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