Gainsborough Old Hall: A Tudor Manor House in England
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- English
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page8 sections
History
Gainsborough Old Hall is a fifteenth-century Tudor manor house in Gainsborough, England, built by Sir Thomas Burgh as the residence of the Burgh family. Regarded as one of England’s best-preserved medieval manor houses, it expressed the family’s wealth and standing. The exact date of construction is uncertain, but the hall became a setting for royal visits, religious activity, and important changes in the history of English Protestantism.
The Burgh family and royal visitors
Sir Thomas Burgh was also a benefactor of Newark Church and founded a chantry, a religious foundation supporting prayers or services for the dead, and an alms house, which provided accommodation or support for poor people, at Gainsborough. In 1470, Sir Robert Welles attacked the manor after a dispute involving land, social status, and honour. The hall was not seriously damaged.
Sir Thomas entertained Richard III at Gainsborough Old Hall in 1484. Richard was the Yorkist king of England from 1483 to 1485, before Henry VII founded the Tudor dynasty. Henry VII intended to raise Burgh to baronial pre-eminence, but no second writ or patent was issued. Henry VIII visited the hall in 1509 and returned in 1541 with his fifth wife, Queen Katherine Howard. She was accused of indiscretions at Gainsborough and Lincoln and was later executed.
The hall was also connected with the Burgh family’s complicated succession. Edward Burgh, 2nd Baron Burgh, was confined there in 1510 after being declared a lunatic. He had never attended the House of Lords and died in 1528. His eldest son, Sir Thomas Burgh, then became head of the family and was regarded as 1st Baron Burgh, de jure 3rd. Edward Burgh had married Catherine Parr in 1529, and the couple remained at Gainsborough Old Hall until 1530, when they received their own manor at Kirton-in-Lindsey. Parr later became Henry VIII’s sixth wife.
The Hickman family and religious dissent
After Thomas, the fifth Lord Burgh, died without an heir, the hall was sold in 1596 to William Hickman, a London merchant. Hickman and his mother, Rose, supported Puritan dissenters, including John Smyth and Thomas Helwys. Puritans were English Protestants who sought further reform of the Church of England. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Smyth and Helwys were allowed to worship and conduct services at the hall before going into exile in the Netherlands. Their separatist activities were associated with the development of the Baptist tradition.
The Hickmans remained prominent in Gainsborough, and several family members served as local Members of Parliament. Sir Neville Hickman invited John Wesley to preach in the Great Hall in 1759, 1761, and 1764. A new house was built at Thonock in 1720, after which Gainsborough Old Hall ceased to be the family residence. It remained in Hickman ownership and was used for various purposes.
Preservation and later interpretation
Local tradition says that the tower is haunted by a Grey Lady, a ghostly figure in British folklore understood as the apparition of a deceased woman. In the story, the daughter of the lord of the manor planned to elope with a poor soldier, and her father imprisoned her in the tower. She supposedly died there of a broken heart.
The Friends of the Old Hall began caring for the building in 1949, helping to save it and opening it to the public for the first time. Sir Edmund Bacon transferred the hall to the nation in 1970. It is now owned by English Heritage, the public body responsible for many historic sites in England, and operated as a museum. The Friends continue to contribute volunteer guides and other expertise. Gainsborough Old Hall is a Grade I listed building, the highest category of heritage protection for buildings in England, with the designation dated 4 April 1964.
Remains
Gainsborough Old Hall has changed relatively little in architectural terms. It is principally timber-framed, giving the building its characteristic striped black-and-white appearance, while its architectural style is identified as Tudor. A brick-built tower occupies the north-east corner, and the hall retains an elaborate timber roof. Together, these elements preserve the character of a large late-medieval manor house and its later Tudor setting.
Interior features and protective marks
The medieval kitchen
The kitchen is possibly the most complete medieval kitchen in England. It retains two open fireplaces, each large enough to roast an ox, as well as two bread ovens served by a third chimney. These surviving features show the scale and equipment of the household’s food preparation area.
Witches’ marks and burn marks
Numerous witches’ marks are carved into the walls. Such marks were thought to protect buildings against evil and curses, and they include an unusual inverted carving of William Hickman’s name. The hall also contains many burn marks intended to protect it against fire, adding another layer of evidence for the beliefs associated with the building’s occupants.
