HICKLETON HALL

There has been a manor house at Hickleton since the medieval period but its exact location has been lost.

An Elizabethan hall is recorded as being built by one Sir Francis Rodes (d. 1589) of Barlborough and Staveley Woodthorpe, Derbyshire, a Judge on the Elizabethan court circuit. Hickleton is thought to have been built around this time as Sir Francis Rodes' will records leaving the land and property to his son Peter. The location is known, built on the south side of the road through the village and some remains are incorporated into a 'folly' retaining wall to the former joiners shop and wood yard of the Halifax family.

In 1744, Godfrey Wentworth of Woolley Hall near Barnsley , who had purchased the property c1730, decided to build a Georgian house with all the modern facilities of the day. He moved into his new house in 1748 with his family, making it his main residence. The architect finishing the building and erecting further out-buildings including the stable-block was James Paine. In 1777, Godfrey extended his house adding two low wings on the south and north sides of the east elevation, with a two-storey servants wing, also on the north. He died in 1789, his grandson, on inheriting adding Wentworth to his name as per the terms of the will becoming Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth (from Wentworth Armytage). He didn't live all the time at Hickleton as the house appears to have been rented to a relation, Sir Francis Hawkesworth. By 1828 the house had to be sold as Godfrey's bank, Wentworth, Chaloner and Rishworth, had failed and ceased trading.

Click here to view the present Hickleton Hall

Hickleton was bought by Sir Francis Lindley Wood, 2nd bart. (1771-1846) of Hemsworth in 1828 and by 1830 he had moved in with his son, Sir Charles Wood (1800-1885). Sir Charles Wood was raised to the peerage in 1886 taking the title, Viscount Halifax of Monk Bretton, for his political achievements, Halifax being the constituency he served for thirty-two years and Monk Bretton their oldest known ancestral home. The house and the title passed to his son, Charles Lindley Wood, second Viscount on his death. This Charles continued with alterations to the house, village and church started by his father. When he died in 1934 Hickleton had reached its zenith of a 'close' village, respecting bygone traditions both on the estate and in the church. Edward Frederick Lindley Wood inherited and it became his second home to Garrowby, East Yorkshire and it is at this point that we see the start of a decline as the house is used less frequently until after army occupation during the Second World War when the contents are sold and the property let to a school based at Whitby. This was the Order of the Holy Paraclete and Hickleton became their junior school until 1960. In 1961 Sue Ryder (later Lady Warsaw) opened the Hall as a refuge for Forgotten Allies and it continues today as Sue Ryder Care. 

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