Nettleham Hall, Lincolnshire, October 2014

HughieD · Oct 12, 2014

Nettleham Hall stands ruined in woods off Hall Lane in the village of Nettleham, just North of Lincoln. It was the former home of the Hood Family, who apparently were very popular residents of the village. John Hood was the first of the Hood family to occupy Nettleham Hall when he came to these parts from Scotland with General Monck, the 1st Duke of Albemarle, in 1660 on a mission to restore Charles II to the throne.

The first thing you see of the hall at the main entrance is a magnificent set of wrought iron gates. They came from the demolished church of St.Peter at Arches, Lincoln. They were designed by either Francis or William Smith around 1720. The piers and flanking walls are later dating from around 1890. The very fine gates are Grade I listed and feature square section bars with curly finials, curlicue side panels and foliage decoration. The gates are also now on English Heritage's 'Heritage at Risk' register.

The gates were a later addition as the Georgian hall itself dates from the late18th century. Surprisingly there is little information about the hall itself. What is known is that it had an underground system of tunnels so the servants to move around the house and an antique auction catalogue for the hall's sale describes it as a "charming stone built Georgian House with views of Lincoln Cathedral" that was sold with three acres of garden and 1,500 acres of shooting lands.

Ironically more is known about the gates themselves than the hall. The only other known fact about the house is that it burnt down in 1937 (although some sources quote 1935) in 'mysterious circumstances'. What is certain is that since then it has been left to nature which is slowly reclaiming it.

OK, on with the pictures.

The first thing you come to is those gates:

img6488 by HughieDW, on Flickr

…and the hall’s ex-lodge:

img6427 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The front of this once imposing house has been given over to nature:

img6478 by HughieDW, on Flickr

although the Roman columned entrance is still impressive:

img6474 by HughieDW, on Flickr

The ivy advances showing no respect to fancy architectural features:

img6466 by HughieDW, on Flickr

It’s hard to tell the house apart from nature from some aspects:

img6447 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6433 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Inside it’s all about walls:

img6434 by HughieDW, on Flickr

as that’s all that’s about left:

img6436 by HughieDW, on Flickr

…and the odd crumbling fireplace:

img6441 by HughieDW, on Flickr

..apart from a bit of the original cellar that remains in tact:

img6452 by HughieDW, on Flickr

and the odd tree that’s taken up residence:

img6471 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Bye bye Nettleham, you magical place…

img6469 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

The Wombat · Oct 12, 2014

Nicely done
I didn't see the cellar when I went

HughieD · Oct 12, 2014

Cheers Mr Wombat. To be fair it is easy to miss as the entrance to it is quite subtle (an arch that's mostly filled with rubble with just enough space to shuffle into the room). Also it's not that extensive - what you see there is about the extent of what's left. Somebody has left a number of tea lights there which they have used to illuminate it. Bet it looked right atmospheric...