DERBYSHIRE

NETHER HALL

Nether Hall 1
Nether Hall tends to be forgotten by historians of Derbyshire’s country houses. It has always been owned by the Shuttleworth family but spent its early years rented out to tenants (Savills)

Nether Hall has been owned by the same family for 179 years who decided, in the summer of 2017, to put the house on the market with a price tag of £2.5 million.

According to legend six halls around Hathersage were built by William the Conqueror and given to the family of six Eyre brothers for ‘valorous conduct’ in the conquest of England.These were Hathersage Hall, North Lees Hall, Nether Hall, Hogg Hall, Haselford Hall and Highlow Hall.

When James Waterhouse Smith, also of Clarence Terrace in Regent’s Park, chose to leave Nether Hall in the 1830s, he sold it to John Spencer Ashton Shuttleworth (1817-1894) of Hathersage Hall. Shuttleworth represented the old family of the Ashtons of Hathersage who had gained wealth through their extensive Derbyshire lead mines. Never a businessman but a country gentleman and keen forester, he held a firm belief that landed property was safe security, his foresight in purchasing land fully justifying his policy.

Nether Hall 2
Nether Hall was designed by William Flockton of Sheffield who set himself up as an architect in 1833. He later went into business with William Lee and his son Thomas Flockton as ‘Flockton, Lee and Flockton’ (Savills)

He demolished old Nether Hall and replaced it with a coarsed gritstone mansion between 1838 and 1840 to the designs of Sheffield architect William Flockton, responsible for many of the city’s grand buildings and having significant influence on the market town of Bakewell. Soon after it became the inspiration of ‘Mr Oliver’s grand hall down i’ Morton Vale’ in Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ published in 1847.

The sales information tells you that it has remained in the Shuttleworth family ever since although for the first hundred years the ‘Victorian property developer’ approach meant Nether Hall was tenanted.

First there was Charles James Peel, then Joseph Bright, a Sheffield estate and insurance agent, Mark Thomas Dixon, a director of the Hallamshire File and Steel Company and Thomas Norton Longman, head of the publishers Longmans, Green and Co (established in 1724 and now known as Longman, owned by Pearson). On his father’s death he left Nether Hall for the family seat at Shendish House in Hertfordshire. Its next tenant was F.C. Fairholme, a director of steel manufacturers Thomas Firth and Sons. Of course, the Shuttleworths eventually took advantage of the old house’s charms and have lived there for most of its recent history.

Nether Hall,
Hathersage, Derbyshire, S32 1BG

Nether Hall 3
Nether Hall was built for J.S.A. Shuttleworth of Hathersage Hall. His father died in his infancy and the estate was managed by Mr Holdworthy of Brookfield. On reaching his minority he inherited landed property, including Hathersage Hall, a large tract of land in the same parish, the manor of Padley, and property in several adjoining parishes (Savills)
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J.S.A. Shuttleworth had very little to do with political and public matters. However, he took an active interest in the Dore and Chinley Railway, and gave evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons in support of the undertaking. He was a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of Derbyshire (Savills)