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Grinton Lodge, Yorkshire, England. Further historical information.

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GRINTON LODGE

GRINTON LODGE, (a shooting residence of the Rev. William Carr Fenton, now occupied by Col. Hilyard) in the township of Grinton, and parish of Grinton; half a mile south of Grinton.

Grinton Lodge, though the seat of the Lord of the Manor of Grinton in the nineteenth century, is neither an old building nor on old foundations.

Bridlington Priory owned Grinton Manor until the Dissolution and had their capital messuage at Swale Hall. Cogden hall also belonged to the Priory.

After the Dissolution the manor of Grinton passed from hand to hand through families such as Wiseman, Hilary and Marriott. It was the Blackbournes of Richmond who moved the seat of the manorial lords from Swale hall to Blackbourne Hall near the church early in the eighteenth century (though the hall itself was much older, being rebuilt in 1635). Cogden hall passed to the Aldersons in the seventeenth century. John Reedshaw rebuilt this house in the following century.

Then about 1816 James Felton of Doncaster enclosed part of Grinton Moor high above the village and in the following year erected for himself a mansion with outhouses and stables set in gardens and wide expanses of moor. He leased this property to Thomas Blackburn Hildyard on 14th August 1817 for seven years.

The Fentons later sold to the Wentworths of Woolley near Wakefield. On 15th June 1855 Godfrey Wentworth esq. sold the estate to John Charlesworth Dodgson esq. of Hatfield Hall, Wakefield. The property consisted of the Manor of Grinton with all moor and waste, moor closes and all that "messuage or dwellinghouse situate and being upon Grinton Moor near Grinton aforesaid together with the gardens, plantations, stables, coach house, kennels and other outbuildings....all that close...adjoining to the said dwellinghouse...lately in the occupation of the Duke of Leeds and now of the said Godfrey Wentworth and were taken off and enclosed from the moor called Grinton Moor upwards of thirty five years ago by on James Felton deceased...." (N.R.R.D. conveyance 15th June 1855)

Jefferys' map of 1772 confirms that Cogden hall was at that time the last house south of Grinton Church. The 1854 Ordnance Map clearly shows the new Grinton Lodge near Hart Holes with its kennels and out-buildings.

The purchaser of Grinton Lodge in 1855 was M.P. for Wakefield in 1857-9. He belonged to the Charlesworth family of Hull. He died in 1880. His son, Col. Albany H Charlesworth, J.P. of Chapelthorpe hall, Wakefield, succeeded him in the estates. He lived from 1854 to 1914 and was M.P. for Wakefield in 1892-5. He had an accident in the hunting field which left him very disabled. He had extensive alterations done to Grinton Lodge for access for his wheelchair and had the garages built.

His son was Aide-de-Camp to Winston Churchill and died in a plane crash going to the Yalta Conference. His son died in an accident at the end of the war.

Mrs Charlesworth sold the estate to a syndicate who sold Grinton Lodge, with five acres of land with shooting rights, to the Youth Hostels Association for £5,500 in 1948. Some of the rest of the estate was sold off and the remainder to the Holliday family who, in 1995, sold it the Earl Peel.

[Edited by David Iredale from data provided by Northallerton Archives and Lucie Hinson.] ©2010]