A treasure on the Trent

A collection of letters sheds light on life in Jacobean Thrumpton Hall, says John Goodall

Thrumpton hall stands about a mile from the towering chimneys of ratcliffe-on-soar power Station and only a little further from the outskirts of nottingham, yet its immediate setting above a former backwater of the river trent feels completely removed from the industrial world (Fig 1). the building is first documented in the will of one Gervase pigottt, dated January 24, 1617, where it is described as ‘my chief and principall howse by me in thrompton aforesaid builded and inhabited’.

pigott, who was born locally, but on the Derbyshire side of the trent, had developed an interest in the manor of thrumpton by stages from 1594. Its late-medieval owners, the powtrells, were gradually ruined by their adherence to Catholicism and the recusancy fines that attended it. they finally sold up in 1609 for £200 and work to pigott’s seat probably began immediately thereafter.

the new house was erected on a conventional h-shaped plan with a central hall bookended by cross ranges. It was constructed in brick and detailed in stone (with framed internal partitions, which have given rise to the misconception that the fabric incorporates the remains of an older building). the bones of this relatively modest Jacobean house survive intact, but have been cumulatively overlaid and adapted.

pigott’s son, another Gervase, inherited as a minor in 1617 and supported parliament in the Civil War. It is a surprise, therefore, that he was a friend of the antiquarian and royalist Dr robert thoroton. In his The

Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, published in 1677 (which was inspired, according to the preface, by a conversation at thrumpton), thoroton reports that Gervase ‘inclosed the Fields, and very much adorned the Seat, so that ’tis now as pleasant and convenient both within and without as can reasonably be wished’.

the work included the cosmetic enrichment of the exterior with ornamental gables and major internal changes. he possibly doubled up the central block to create an inner and outer hall at ground level (now the hall and library, the latter perhaps at a raised ➢

‘The bones of this relatively modest Jacobean house survive intact’