Wallingwells
The following extract from the Leeds Mercury details Wallingwells as it was in 1900.
To my right is the goodly estate of Sir Thomas W. White. If you look at the map you will observe that the long-bodied, leaning County of Nottingham protrudes an open little dragon-mouth at this corner and seizes the bonne-bouche of Wallingwells, which fills it almost to throttling point.
Gildingwells, on both sides of the road I am travelling, only just escapes by a hair's breadth from being drawn in to keep Wallingwells company. The two, though very near neighbours, have, however, very little in common, Wallingwells being a Nottinghamshire conventual retreat, and the other a severely plain Yorkshire road-side hamlet.
In Hunter's time a tree only a few yards in front of the former house was pointed out as standing on the boundary line of the two counties. Ralph de Chevercourt appears to have founded Wallingwells for the benefit of Benedictine Nuns. This was in the reign of Stephen, and the foundation is regarded as coeval with that of Roche Abbey. It had the parsonage of Cantley, near Doncaster; and from the parsonage of Campsall, near Askern, more than half the revenue of the house was derived; so that, substantially, it was a Yorkshire House. The inmates prized most highly among their treasures a comb said to have belonged to St. Edmund. On this tradition they venerated it, but did not worship it: though I cannot conceive how their souls could profit by such a saint's doubtful toilet requisite.
The site of the house was regarded as a particularly sanctified one, because a statuette of the Blessed Virgin was found when the foundations were being laid. This, of course, was a catch-penny for the faithful, and ran as a counter-attraction to the natural image of our Saviour stretched upon the Cross, which the monks of Roche Abbey discovered upon the limestone of their own valley.
At the dissolution Wallingwells sheltered Margaret Goldsmith, the last prioress, and eight professed nuns; its clear revenue being estimated at £58. 9s. 10d. The site remained in the possession of the Crown till 1564, when it was granted to Sir Richard Pyper. Knight, citizen, and bookseller, of London, Lord Mayor in 1578. The nuns would have wept out their eyes if only they could have penetrated the veil of the next vicissitude and seen Major Samuel Taylor, a Commonwealth Officer, feasting with his friends in the once sacred halls of Wallingwells, and the sombre, black-gowned household gathering together for plain Puritan night and morning prayers.
The present owner is the descendant of Sir Thomas Wollaston White.
More about Wallingwells
©2004