Nevill Hall

Description

Site of the Mediaeval Nevill Hall, demolished by 1870 and replaced by the police station and magistrates court. First documented in 1347 in the will of Edward Nevill and traditionally associated with a pele tower. It was converted from a poor house to a work house in 1836. The police station was built on the site in 1870. (PastScape)

NEVILL HALL manor originated in a grant by William de Lancaster to his knight Lawrence de Cornwall of the mills and various lands. John son of Lawrence de Cornwall was engaged in various disputes in 1292, and left sons named Lawrence and Mauger, whose inheritance by 1332–47 came to Sir Edmund de Nevill and to his son William and Aline his wife. It descended in this family, which was seated at Liversedge in Yorkshire, till the 16th century, when Sir John Nevill having taken part in the northern rising of 1569, it became forfeited to the Crown and was afterwards sold in parcels. The customs of the manor were thus described in 1774: The admittance fine was two years' rent in addition to the ordinary rent; the fine on change of lords, half a year's rent; the running gressom or 'town's term,' half a year's rent every seventh year; the widow, if a first wife, had half the tenement as dower, but if a later wife then one-third. Formerly a tenant paying 20s. rent had been bound to keep a horse harnessed for the king's service. The hall was sold to the town authorities for a workhouse in 1753, and so used till 1838, when the new workhouse in the Gill was built. It was sold in 1844. The present police station (1872) stands on the site, the last remaining portion of the old hall having been pulled down in 1881 to make way for the superintendent's residence. The manor is supposed to have been dissipated by various changes and to be extinct. (PastScape)

Comments

Actually evidence this hall had a pele tower is scant but in this area a member of the Nevill family will have been likely to have expressed their knightly status in the architecture of their house.