page_title: Clumber Park
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Clumber Park / History
context_page_description: Clumber Park is a country park in The Dukeries near Worksop in Nottinghamshire, England. The estate, which was the seat of the Pelham-Clintons, Dukes of Newcastle, was purchased by the National Trust in 1946. It is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
  The main house was demolished in 1938 after damage by a series of fires. The nearby Grade I listed chapel in Gothic Revival style and a four-acre walled kitchen garden still survive. The gardens and the estate are managed by the National Trust and are open to the public all year round.
context_section_description: Clumber, mentioned in the Domesday Book was a monastic property in the Middle Ages, but later came into the hands of the Holles family. In 1709 it was enclosed as a deer park by John Holles - 4th Earl of Clare, 3rd Earl of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle. Clumber house, close to the River Poulter at the centre of the park, became a hunting lodge.
  Two generations later, the heir to the estate, Lord Lincoln, decided to make it one of his principal mansions. From 1759 onwards, work on the house and park proceeded, under the supervision of a carpenter and builder named Fuller White (although he is likely to have been working to plans from architect Stephen Wright). White was dismissed in 1767, and Wright took charge of the project, replacing some of the 1760s features in the 1770s. The project was still not complete when Wright died, and some features in and around the park may have been designed by his successor, John Simpson, in the 1780s.    
  When, in March 1879 a serious fire destroyed much of Clumber House, the 7th Duke of Newcastle had it rebuilt to designs by Charles Barry, Jr. Another fire, in 1912, caused less damage, but the effects of the First World War and the Great Depression forced the abandonment of the mansion, which, like many other houses during this period, was demolished in 1938, to avoid a tax bill. 
  Charles Boot of Henry Boot Construction, was contracted to demolish the house and he removed a vast array of statues, facades and fountains to his Derbyshire home, Thornbridge Hall, although most were lost to private buyers at auction. The Church of St Mary, a Grade I listed Gothic Revival chapel built by the 7th Duke of Newcastle and a four-acre walled kitchen garden with a glass house measuring some 450 feet in length survive. The Duke's study, designed by Barry, is all that survives of the main house, and is presently home to the Clumber Café. It is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.
   
  In March 2018 the park's ornamental bridge suffered extensive damage after a car was deliberately driven into it. The believed-stolen car was burnt out nearby. The National Trust said it appeared to be "an act of intentional damage". The Grade-I listed bridge over the River Poulter was believed to have been built in the 1760s. 
  The bridge was closed and will remain permanently closed to vehicular through-traffic. Police divers recovered hundreds of pieces of broken stone knocked into the river as a training exercise. A floating pontoon platform to support scaffolding has been constructed, and stonemasons will start to rebuild the bridge using some original fragments in October 2019.  
  Just over a week after the bridge damage, a waste-bin, a National Trust van and a barn known as The Bunk House were all set alight in an arson attack. Two months later in May, six engraved brass plaques containing the names of men who had died in wars were stolen from nearby Hardwick Village War Memorial. The memorial is a Grade-II listed structure and the plaques were 100 years old.
caption: Clumber Park in 1829
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