Rufford Abbey is a
country estate in
Rufford,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
, England, two miles (4 km) south of
Ollerton. Originally a
Cistercian
The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
, it was converted to a country house in the 16th century after
Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. Part of the house was demolished in the 20th century, but the remains, standing in 150 acres of park and woodland, are open to the public as Rufford Country Park. Part of the park is a
local nature reserve.
The remains of the house is owned by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
and the country park is owned by
Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the non-metropolitan county excludes the city of ...
and managed by Parkwood Leisure.
The house itself is constructed of rubble, brick, dressed stone and ashlar with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs.
Amenities
The park is open to visitors and has several cafes, gift and garden shops. And has a range of activities.
Lime Walk, Rufford Country Park
The Monastic Foundation
The abbey itself was founded by
Gilbert de Gant
Gilbert de Gant (Giselbert de Gand, Ghent, Gaunt) (c. 1040 – 1095) was the son of Ralph, Lord of Aalst near Ghent, and Gisele of Luxembourg, the sister-in-law of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders. Gilbert de Gant was a kinsman of Matilda of F ...
, on 12 July 1147, and populated with
Cistercian
The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...
monks from
Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire.
The English Pope,
Adrian IV gave the blessing for the abbey in 1156, following which the abbey's lands expanded and the villagers of
Cratley,
Grimston,
Rufford, and
Inkersall were evicted. A new village of
Wellow, just outside the estate housed some of the displaced people.
The
Valor Ecclesiasticus
The ''Valor Ecclesiasticus'' (Latin: "church valuation") was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII. It was colloquially called the Kings books, ...
of 1534 gives the gross income of the abbey as £254 6s. 8d. (), and the clear annual value as £176 11s. 6d. ().
Abbot Doncaster obtained a pension of £25 a year, on the dissolution of the house in 1536 among the lesser monasteries, but it was voided on his speedy appointment to the
rectory
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...
of Rotherham on 2 July 1536.
After its dissolution, the abbey gained a reputation of being haunted by the spectre of a giant monk carrying a skull.
; Abbots of Rufford
* Philip de Kyme, temp. Stephen
* Edward, 1203
* Geoffrey, c. temp. John, 1218, &c.
* Thomas
* Simon, c. 1232
* G—, c. 1239
* Geoffrey, c. 1252
* William, c. 1259
* Henry, 1278
* Thomas de Stayngreve, c. 1283
* Henry, c. 1288
* Henry de Tring, c. 1315
* Elias Lyvet (
Levett
Levett is a surname of Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories.
Origins
This surname comes from the village of ...
), c. 1332
* Robert de Mapelbek, 1352
* Thomas, 1366
* John de Harlesay, 1372
* John de Farnsfeld, 1394
* Thomas Sewally, c. 1400
* Robert de Welles, 1421
* Robert Warthill, died 1456
* William Cresswell, 1456
* John Pomfrat, died 1462
* John Lilly, 1462
* John Greyne, 1465
* Roland Bliton, 1516
* Thomas Doncaster, last abbot
Country house

The estate was granted to
George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury. It was partly demolished and converted to a country house between 1560 and 1590 by
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury,
Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury's husband.
Lady Arbella Stuart,
Bess of Hardwick's granddaughter visited Rufford Abbey. In 1603, the
Main Plot
The Main Plot was an alleged conspiracy of July 1603 by English courtiers to remove King James I from the English throne and to replace him with his cousin Lady Arbella Stuart. The plot was supposedly led by Lord Cobham and funded by the Spani ...
took place for
Lady Arbella Stuart to replace King
James VI and I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...
on the throne. Arbella was the cousin of King James I and James was the son of
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legit ...
The estate was inherited in 1626 by Mary Talbot, sister of the 7th and 8th Earls from whom it passed to her husband, Sir George Savile, 2nd Baronet. He remodelled the house in 1685–95.
Sir William Savile, 3rd Baronet, George's successor, made Rufford Abbey the seat of the Savile family after he burnt down the Saviles' original home to prevent its being occupied by a Parliamentarian garrison during the Civil War, but was killed in action in 1644. It was next inhabited by his son, the
Marquess of Halifax
The title Marquess of Halifax was created in the Peerage of England in 1682 for the George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, George Savile, 1st Earl of Halifax.
He had previously been created Baron Savile, of Elland in the County of York, Viscount ...
, the
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...
, who died in 1695. In 1679, he constructed a new north wing on the site of the abbey church, containing reception rooms and a long gallery. He also built the large stable block to the right of the house. The surviving service wing was also added by the Saviles in the 17th century.
Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet died unmarried in 1784 and the estate passed to his nephew
The Hon. Richard Lumley-Saunderson, later 6th
Earl of Scarbrough. He was the younger son of the
4th Earl of Scarbrough and Barbara Savile, the 8th Baronet's sister and heiress. On his death the estate passed to his younger brother, the 7th Earl, and then to the latter's son the 8th Earl, who bequeathed the estate in turn to his second natural son Captain Henry Lumley-Savile. When Henry died in 1881 it passed to his younger brother
Augustus William Lumley-Savile (1829–1887) and then to his eldest (but illegitimate) brother, the diplomat
John Lumley-Savile, who assumed the surname of Savile only and was created Baron Savile the following year.
By the early 1900s, the Rufford Abbey Estate comprised some , but had begun to feel the effects of rising running costs and reduced incomes. In 1931 the estate descended to the
3rd Baron Savile, who was only 12 years old, and the trustees took the decision to sell the estate off in lots in 1938.
Sir Albert Ball bought much of the land, and quickly sold the house to the eccentric aristocrat
Harry Clifton.
The abbey and 150 acres of grounds were bought by Nottinghamshire County Council in 1952.
In 1956 the late 17th century north and east wings were demolished and the remaining west range and south service wing put into the care of the
Ministry of Works. The site was opened to the public by Nottinghamshire County Council; car parking, retail outlets and visitor services are managed on behalf of the council by a contractor in co-operation with English Heritage.
History of The Lordship and Liberty of Rufford
The Manor of
Rufford was listed in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
.
The Rufford Estate covered approximately twenty-nine square miles and, in addition to the ancient
Liberty of Rufford, it included the parishes of
Bilsthorpe,
Eakring and most of
Ollerton, Ompton,
Boughton,
Wellow, and extended into
Blidworth,
Edwinstowe,
Egmanton,
Farnsfield,
Kirton,
Tuxford
Tuxford is a historic market town and a civil parish in the Bassetlaw District, Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. It had a population of 2,809 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census.
Geography
Its nearby towns are Oll ...
, and
Walesby.
The titles of
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...
of
Rufford and of the
Liberty of Rufford were sold at auction by the
Manorial Society of Great Britain in July 2010.
Ice houses

Between 1729 and c.1845 many improvements were made to the Rufford estate. For example, the addition of the bath house, the creation of the lake and mill buildings, the construction of the brewhouse, water tower and coach house, and also the addition of five
ice houses.
Although Rufford Abbey once boasted five ice houses, only two remain today. All were constructed around 1820, when the estate was owned by
John Lumley-Savile, 8th Earl of Scarbrough (1788–1856). The five ice houses are located near Rufford lake, created c. 1750; for the simple reason that the movement of ice from its source was easier.
Not all of Rufford's ice houses faced north, as accessibility and the logistics of the ice may have meant that the builders found it easier to place the doorways facing the lake rather than northerly. It is believed that ice was mainly taken from Blackwalk Pond, which was drained to make way for housing in the 20th century. Blackwalk Pond was used to serve the abbey in Rufford's monastic era, and later supplied water to Rufford's water tower and brewhouse, which remain on site today.
The 1851 poaching incident and ballad
In 1851, a gang of forty or so
poachers
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunti ...
assembled in Rufford Park as a mass action against what was perceived to be the unfair monopolising of game-hunting rights by wealthy landowners. The poachers were attacked by ten gamekeepers and, in the ensuing battle, one of the gamekeepers was badly injured and later died of a fractured skull. Four of the poachers' ringleaders were arrested and each subsequently sentenced to deportation and fourteen years of penal servitude for manslaughter. The incident gave rise to the popular ballad, ''Rufford Park Poachers'' (
Roud #1759), which depicts the poachers as bold heroes.
One of, if not the, earliest recordings is a 1907 performance by
Joseph Taylor, collected on wax cylinder by the musicologist
Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and ...
in 1907.
It was digitised by the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
and made available online in 2018.
Grainger transcribed "Rufford Park Poachers" in the third movement of his suite, ''
Lincolnshire Posy''.
"Rufford Abbey" is a popular piece composed and arranged for brass band by Drake Rimmer. It is often used as an intermediate grade competition piece, and is a popular choice for recitals.
[ Cite Web: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Xn6LNnSX4, You Tube, Rufford Abbey by Drake Rimmer, retrieved on 23 April 2025]
Martin Carthy
Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later ar ...
recorded the song on his 1982 album ''
Out of the Cut''.
TV series
The abbey was the setting for
Helen Cresswell's children's book (1984) and later TV series called ''The Secret World of Polly Flint'' (1987). The small neighbouring village of
Wellow was also used.
See also
*
Grade I listed buildings in Nottinghamshire
*
Listed buildings in Rufford, Nottinghamshire
References
External links
Archaeological aerial photographs in the near infraredHistory of Rufford Abbey from Worksop Heritage Trail
*
Rufford Abbey's Gertrude Savile on Twitter (18th century diary)
{{Authority control
Country houses in Nottinghamshire
Monasteries in Nottinghamshire
Cistercian monasteries in England
English Heritage sites in Nottinghamshire
Ruins in Nottinghamshire
Christian monasteries established in the 1140s
1147 establishments in England
1536 disestablishments in England
Local Nature Reserves in Nottinghamshire
Country parks in Nottinghamshire
Newark and Sherwood
Robin Hood
Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation