Monument record MDR7863 - Shipley Hall and outbuildings (remains of), Shipley Country Park, Shipley

The Hall and associated outbuildings appear on a map showing the Manor of Shipley in 1713. The site boundaries have been made to include these outbuildings. (1) A manor house was probably built by Hon Robert le Vavasour sometime before 1322; indeed the Vavasours may have had a seat there earlier, possibly when Sir Robert le Vavasour served as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire from 1246 to 1254. A moat survived for many years at SK438 442 which may be relevant. In 1331 Robert de Strelley, the heir, claimed two deer parks, the New Park surrounding the house, and the Old Park, lying to the west; he was found to be licensed to have the former but had to disempark the latter. In his will of 1430 Sir Nicholas Strelley mentions his chapel at Shipley. In 1599 the hall was described as a ‘large old house, well seated and dry’. It was partly of stone and partly of timber and plaster. At that time it had a brewhouse, bakehouse, barn, stables, dovecotes, gardens, orchards and fishponds. The house had been rebuilt by 1631 as a three storey building with attics and with a three-gabled façade. It was taxed on 11 hearths in 1670. A new house was built on the foundations of the old in 1749-50. Nothing is known of this house, as the seat that survived into the 20th century was built in 1778-89, but may have been created out of the shell of the 1749 house. The new hall was constructed of brick faced with the ashlar of millstone grit from a quarry at Pentrich. The architect is not known. The hall was remodelled in 1895 by Sir Walter Tapper, who also built two lodges (1903), the Italian pergola and the extensive conservatories and greenhouses. The hall and estate were sold to the Shipley Colliery Company in 1922. Following the extraction of coal from beneath the house, it suffered damage and was finally demolished in 1948. The house site and part of the park were acquired by Derbyshire County Council in the 1970s. (2) The earliest reference and description of a house at Shipley appears in a document of 1599. This says that there was a house, part stone and part timber and plaster, which was large, well seated and dry. Some of the rooms were wainscoted. Attached to the house was a brewhouse, a bakehouse, barns, stables, dovecotes, gardens, orchards and fishponds. A chapel at Shipley is mentioned in the will of Sir Nicholas Strelley in 1430. (3)