Southwick Hall

Nestled in a valley beneath Rockingham Forest, lies the village of Southwick with the church of St Mary’s, and Southwick Hall close by. The Hall, with its towers and finials and gables, represents many centuries of building unified by the use of the local limestone and collyweston roof tiles; there are two medieval towers, an Elizabethan hall and crosswing built on the site of the earlier hall, with Georgian additions, and a Victorian stable block and east wing. Three families have owned the Hall; from the twelfth century the Knyvets. Richard Knyvet, a wealthy wool merchant of the early fourteenth century, built the south tower block at the front of the Hall and his son Sir John Knvyet was Lord Chancellor to Edward 111. They sold in the 1440’s to the Lynne’s , a merchant family from London; George Lynne ...who rebuilt the main hall and cross wing in the 1580’s, was a member of Parliament for Stamford at the time of the incarceration and execution of Mary Queen of Scots at nearby Fotheringhay. After years of neglect in the 1800’s the Hall was sold to the Capron family in the 1840’s; George Capron was a wealthy lawyer from London whose clients included the likes of the third Marquis of Hertford, the original for the Marquis of Steyne in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. George Capron had been born in Northampton and built a substantial land holding in the county; he had restored Southwick Hall by 1848, adding a stable block and home farm. Southwick Hall is open for a few days in the year (please see open days) when visitors can look around at their own pace and have a cup of tea on the lawn. We welcome groups by arrangement between Easter and the autumn; we give a guided tour of the many ages of the Hall and its contents, and can provide a cup of tea if required. There are exhibitions from the archives collection, and of clothing and other personal mementoes of the people who have lived in the Hall, and two further exhibitions in the laundry and stable, of village artefacts.