Throwley Hall Self Catering Dovedale

Holiday on a working Peak District farm

We offer two self catering holiday cottages, Throwley Cottage and Throwley Moor Farmouse, the perfect accommodation for families, couples and groups. Located near Ilam, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, just a short distance from Dovedale and 15 minutes away from Alton Towers. There’s fantastic access to popular walking and cycling trails in the Peak District such as the Manifold Valley and Tissington Trail. Dogs are welcome to stay too.

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01538 308202
stay@throwleyhall.co.uk

The Hall & It’s History

Throwley Old Hall is Staffordshire’s only surviving example of a large medieval manor house yet is little known by all but those living in this picturesque corner of the Manifold Valley.

Throwley was first recorded as a residence in 1203, when Oliver de Meverell settled here. It was probably a dwelling for years prior to that – the Manifold Valley being an area rich in archaeological relics from Thor’s Cave and the Burial Grounds of Casterne, whilst in the area around the Hall there are traces of a deserted medieval village.

The Meverells, an ancient Derbyshire family, remained owners of the estate for many years. Thomas de Meverell married Agnes in the 2nd year of the reign of Edward I (1278). She was an heir of Goebert de Gayton.

In 1344, the 17th year of Edward III, deeds given at Tideswell name Thomas de Meverell ‘Lord of Throwley’.

In 1503 Sir Samson Meverell, Lord Mayor of Tideswell, and Constable of England (having served in 11 battles over 2 years in the French wars) built the Hall, now standing as ruins, from local limestone and non-local sandstone, amid a deer park bounded by a 10-foot high drystone wall. The lowered walls remain to this day as field boundaries.

His son Robert married Elizabeth – the daughter of Sir Thomas Fleming – Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.

The couple lived at Throwley and their elaborate tomb lies in the West Wing of Ilam Church.

Their daughter Elizabeth, the last of the Meverells, married 1st Earl of Ardglass, whose great-great-grandfather was Thomas Cromwell responsible for the dissolution of the monasteries during King Henry VIII reign. Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector was also a descendant of this family.

The writer and poet Charles Cotton married into the Cromwell family in 1669 – his 2nd wife Mary was a widow of Wingfield Cromwell. He spent time fishing the local river with his great friend Izaak Walton and building his famous fishing lodge on the River Dove.

The Meverell family tomb is located in Ilam Church.

Following the Cromwells the house passed to the last Baron de Clifford, Edward Southwell, who sold to Sir Samuel Crompton in 1790, who let the property to the reputable Phillips family.

The Estate was then the seat of the Earl of Cathcart for many years, who now holds estates in Paisley.

Earl Cathcart had the Great Hall and most of the house demolished in 1830, taking some fabric from the Cathcart’s York residence. The Hall fell into ruin but remained inhabited until 1877, despite the nearby Georgian farmhouse being constructed in 1823.

Throwley Hall’s former glory and significance is noted by its entry into the 1845 ‘Baronial Halls of England’, by Samuel Carter Hall, as ‘Home of the Meverells, a very ancient house of decent gentlemen of goodly living, equalling the best sort of gentlemen in the Shire’.

The book continues:

“Not surprisingly there is considerable interest in the Hall by Heritage groups and a current plea for the remains to be made safe and explorable by all those intereted in this building of rich historical and architectural value”.

The Estate is now privately owned by the Richardson family, purchased by Arthur Thomas Richardson in 1947, and now farmed by his grandson Phillip and his sons.