Langwith Lodge History

The biggest house in the village of Nether Langwith is Langwith Lodge.

Photo of Langwith, Langwith Lodge c1950, ref. L295015A

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The photo above of Langwith Lodge has been reproduced with the kind permission of Francis Frith Photographers Ltd

A Brief History of Langwith Lodge

Sometimes called Langwith Hall in its early days, the first house was described as a big Georgian house. It might have been built to replace the Old Hall of Upper Langwith as a more palatial residence.

The area came into the Bathurst Family when Sir Peter Apsley’s daughter married Allen Bathurst in 1704. In 1794, James Dowland of Cuckney, who was the local Agent for the Bathurst Family, planted species of every local tree in the grounds.  This was probably the start of the park in which the house is set.

Langwith Hall, or as it was later called, Langwith Lodge was the seat of Earl Bathurst (his second title was Baron Apsley). When he was visiting his properties in the area, he normally lived at Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire.

The 4th Earl of Bathurst (1790-1866), was unmarried and it was he who let Langwith Lodge and later sold it and all the land from the Derbyshire Border of Cuckney, in 1844 to the 4th Duke of Portland.

In 1823, Robert Nassau Sutton, and later, 1832, a Mr Peter Nassau Sutton lived there followed in about 1840 by a Captain Samual William Need (Welfitt).

Lieutenant Colonel Samual William Welfitt J.P. D.I., was born 2nd September 1806, with the surname Need, and came to the Lodge as Captain Need.

Colonel Welfitt was a keen sportsman and was Master of Rufford Hounds from 1861 to 1867, where he started a new pack. The hounds would be kept at the kennels at the Lodge when they hunted locally. He died on 25th May 1889, at the age of 82. His wife, Letitia Mary Welfitt, nee Hall, carried on living at the Lodge until she died, aged 87, on 3rd April 1899.

The New Lodge

The stone-built Lodge was damaged by fire, with an unknown date as to its occurrence. As it was regarded as a rambling inconvenient house to live in, the Duke of Portland had it pulled down and rebuilt, bigger and more distinguished.

The rebuilding took some four years, P Louis Amber (a relation of the Duke’s Agent) was the architect; a new builder to the area, Adam Eastwood, rebuilt it. Only the cellars of the old Lodge building were reused, but the dairy, laundry and a few of the other outbuildings were kept. The new building is in brick with stone corners and the big wooden staircase was built by Samual Nicholson of Shirebrook.

The Ibbotson Family lived at Boon Hills Farm, but whilst the new farmhouse was being built in 1901 at Blue Barn Farm, they moved from Boon Hills to live for a year in the Lodge. They were going to farm the Lodge Estate land. The idea of rebuilding the Lodge was so that a member of the Portland Family might live in it, but it was the Duke’s Agent, Mr T Warner Turner who then lived in it (from 1902). He had moved from Pleasly Vale. He had been living at Cuckney House, but after a fire at Welbeck Abbey, he moved out to let the Duke use it. Later a Captain Amory moved into Cuckney House, followed by the Duke’s son (before Welbeck Woodhouse was built for him).

In 1920, Henry Ashley Longbottom C.E., J.P. (from Rotherham), lived there. He was supposed to be a millionaire and bought the Lodge.  He was in the village for only three years, but proved himself very popular, and his departure was a great loss to the village, so much so, that on Monday 9th April 1923 a large gathering at the Colliery Institute presented him and his wife with an album bound in Morocco Leather.  It contained the thanks of the Church of England’s Men’s Society and the Mother’s Union. The Address wished them “Health and Happiness in their new sphere of influence”. Mr Longbottom died at Ordsall Hall, Retford on 27th May 1938.

In 1923 the Davies Family became the owners of the Lodge. They also owned the Railway Wagon Works at Langwith Junction. In 1952 they sold the Lodge to a developer, Mr Munro Langrick, from Creswell, who built houses in the Park and turned the Lodge into a 15 bed private Maternity Home.

In 1954, the Ministry of Health, Sheffield Region, bought it and turned it into a 31 bed diabetic hospital, which was in use by 1955, one of the very few in the country.  As the need declined, the Lodge was sold in 1990 as a private nursing home.

The above was taken from Book One of “A History of Nether Langwith, Langwith & Whaley Thorns” by Tony Warriner, published by Hardwick Print & Design, Unit 9C4,  Shirebrook Business Park, Acreage Lane, Shirebrook, Mansfield, NG20 8RN.