Armitage Park
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Armitage Park (which has reverted to an earlier name of Hawkesyard Hall) is a 19th-century Grade II listed country house at Armitage near Rugeley, Staffordshire.
History
The Park was purchased by Nathaniel Lister, (poet and author, Member of Parliament for Clitheroe and uncle of Baron Ribblesdale) following his marriage to Martha Fletcher a Lichfield heiress and he built the house in the Gothic Revival style about 1760.
Josiah Spode IV, great grandson of Josiah Spode, bought the park in about 1840 and the house was much altered and extended. During the Spode occupancy the house was known as Spode House. Josiah Spode was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1850.
On Spode's death in 1893 the park was left to his niece Helen Gulson who had a vision of Mary in the gardens of the Hall. This vision led to the building of the Church at Hawkesyard and the Altar was placed on the very spot where Mary was seen. Helen Gulson left the Hall, Church and grounds to the Dominican Order and moved into Gulson House on the Armitage Park Estate. Hawkesyard Priory was later built for the Dominicans. Hawkesyard became the first Roman Catholic conference centre in the United Kingdom under the guidance of Fr. Conrad Pepler. In the 1990s the Priory and dorms were converted into a nursing home. The nursing home is trading as Hawksyard Priory Nursing Home and is registered for 106 residents under a CQC registration.
The Hall eventually fell into disrepair and after the Dominicans left in 1988 the building was used as a school before being finally closed and boarded up. In 1999 the Hall was purchased by Relaine Estates Ltd, who set about restoration of the building partly by using photographs from the Shugborough collection. As the Hall had become known as Spode House it was decided by Ruth Whorton to use the original name of Hawkesyard, which includes Hawkesyard Hall and St Thomas' Priory Golf Course (being the former Deer Park). The Hall is now established as a Wedding, Events and Conference Centre. The Golf Course closed in 2016 due to the divorce of Ruth and Nigel the owners of both the Hall and the Golf Course.
Armitage park is actually the name for the whole area that also consists of some private dwellings and a long established care home called Hawksyard Priory Nursing Home.
References
- Images of England: Spode House
- Burke's History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Volume 1 (1835) p 219
- A guide and history of Hawkesyard Priory and Spode House, Rugeley, Staffordshire by Columba Ryan