Sugworth Hall is an English country house on Sugworth Road in Bradfield Dale, near

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England. It is situated approximately west from Sheffield City Centre. The hall is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

which stands within the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorl ...

National Park at a height of above sea level.

History

The exact date of construction of Sugworth Hall is unknown,

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, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and some publications list it as 17th century but it was first mentioned in the

will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's ( testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

of Robert Hawksworth who was the resident of a building on the site in the 1560s. It is likely that the hall looked completely different at that time with the core of the building being considerably reworked in the 19th century. After the death of Robert Hawksworth the hall passed to his son Henry who was known to be living there in 1585 along with his mother. The Hawksworths were still in residence in the 1630s but by the early part of the 18th century the hall had become the property of the Gould family. The hall was extended during the latter part of the 19th century.Castle, Joe. ''A Look At Life In Bradfield Dale And The Surrounding Area'', J W Northend Ltd (2008), p. 50. . History of hall. The hall became the home of

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

Charles Boot (1874–1945) early in the 20th century. Boot was the son of Henry Boot and would become Chairman of Henry Boot Ltd. in 1921. Boot changed and extended the hall adding a tower and battlements designed by the architect

E. Vincent Harris Emanuel Vincent Harris (26 June 1876 – 1 August 1971), often known as E. Vincent Harris, was an English architect who designed several important public buildings in traditional styles. Early life He was born in Devonport, Devon, and e ...

who was working on the construction of Sheffield City Hall at the time. During his time at the hall Charles Boot constructed Boot's Folly to the north, overlooking Strines Reservoir. In the 1930s the Boot family moved to Thornbridge Hall at Great Longstone although Charles' son Henry Matthew Boot continued to live at Bents House in the valley below Sugworth Hall until his death in 1974. During the 1980s and 1990s some of Sugworth Hall's outbuildings were converted to residential use.Redfern, Roger A. ''Portrait Of Bradfield Dale'', The Cottage Press (2005), p. 43. . History of hall.

Architecture

The hall is constructed from squared

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and gritstone with a stone slate roof with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

stacks. The earlier work on the house is judged to be of superior quality. The 20th-century tower on the west side has an

embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

corner turret and an oriel balcony.

References

{{SheffieldStructures Houses in Sheffield History of Sheffield Houses completed in the 16th century Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Peak District Buildings by Vincent Harris