After failing hard at our first target (more PIRs than you could shake a stick at, alarms, slippery stonework and a heavily bruised coccyx), we hotfooted it across town to Firbeck, to follow up on a lead.
Brief history:
- Built in 1594 by William West, author of a legal textbook called "Symbolaeographia."
- bought by Henry Gally in the late 18th-century. His son, Henry Gally-Knight, in 1820, substantially remodelled and extended Firbeck in the Elizabethan style we see today.
- badly damaged by fire in 1924
- sold in 1934 to businessman Cyril Nicholson who invested £80,000 (approx £4m – 2008 values) modernising the house to create a country club that was frequented by the prince of Wales and Amy Johnson
- the Hall became an annexe to Sheffield Royal Infirmary during the war.
- purchased by the Miners’ Welfare Commission in 1945 as a Miners’ Rehabilitation Centre, closing in 1991.
- Jason Cooper of Doncaster purchased Firbeck Hall and its 45 acres (180,000 m2) of grounds on 6 July 2010. Cooper has a history of restoring Country Homes in the Yorkshire area. Good luck to him, he's going to need it (and pots of money!)
What can I say about this place, other than it's totally fucked in many places - the roof has been stripped and the water is now wrecking the floors and ceilings - if you go, watch where you're putting your feet!
(Apologies for the grainy pics, my camera decided today was ISO 1600 day)
Nice art deco detail from the 1934 modernisation mentioned above
1950's Paperwork from the Miners' Rehab Centre days