Hodroyd Hall
Hodroyd Hall (The Hall) is a Grade II listed building sitting in approximately 4 acres of green belt land, situated in the historic parish of Felkirk. The Hall is a stunning example of early Elizabethan architectural influences and holds a unique place and influence in UK history.
The origins of the Hall go way back to the Anglo Saxons who settled in Felkirk around 800 CE and developed the area and a dwelling at Hodroyd, indeed, Hodroyd probably means the clearing of Hoda. The earliest known written reference to Hodroyd is in the Cartulary of Nostell Priorty in1144, citing one of the residents, Moses de Hodrode. The de Hodrode family were agents of the power De Lacey family, with a later family member, Sir John de Hoderode being the Seneschal of Pontefract in the mid 1200s.
The Hall has distinctive façades and is a rare example of a Grade II listed building that has two external appearances from both the Elizabethan and Georgian periods. The facades are as distinctive as the owners’ who influenced the features of this historic building.
Throughout the eras of history, the occupants of the Hall have been as significant as the architecture. Early known records indicate one of the first occupants was Sir Thomas Gargrave who moved in to the Hall, around 1550, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Gargrave was the first speaker of the Houses of Parliament under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and is likely responsible for the E-shape plan of the Hall; an architectural manifestation of his loyalty to Elizabeth. Gargrave assisted in the transit of Mary Queen of Scots and as such it can be assumed she stayed at the Hall on her way to London with one of the bedrooms at the Hall known as the ‘Queen’s Chamber’.
Another occupant, Dr Richard Berrie had even more connections to royalty and historical strife. Berrie was the physician to Oliver Cromwell, who local legend says recouped at the Hall after his injuries at the Battle of Marston Moore before he raised Pontefract Castle. Berrie was royalist and was arrested due to his support for King Charles I, known as the crime of delinquency’. Dr Berrie was a character and pioneer. He brought and cultivated strawberries to the Hall, the earliest known example in the north. He created an Italian garden because of his studies at the University of Padua in Italy and being a scholar stipulated in his will there should always be a library in the Hall, which there still is today. Even after his death his appetite to challenge convention remained as he bequeathed the Hall to his niece Theodosia Fountaine; unusual at the time as very few women were property owners in their own right.
The next influence and most significant came around 1724 when the eldest son of the marriage between Theodosia Fountaine and Robert Monckton, John Monckton, inherited the Hall. John was a local MP and began a period of great architectural change modernising the Hall from Elizabethan to Georgian influences, but also in the shaping of the democracy the UK enjoys even to the day. Monckton never fully finished his modernisations, hence why there are two different external facades from different periods. Equally as important, the later descendants of the Monckton family were affected by the first use secret ballot still used in our elections today – it’s introduction effectively ended the Monckton’s monopoly on the Parliamentary seat of Pontefract.
The Hall has many significant features, influences and local connections to the local parish and its development. The Hall, internally and externally is steeped with historical consequences and as such leads to the conclusion that the Hall and its place not only in the community, but nationally, has a journey and history that needs to be preserved and celebrated.
