The Lost Houses of Derbyshire
by Maxwell Craven
This situation appears to have continued until the death of the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury , who left a crop of daughters but no sons , amongst whom his estates were parcelled out . Much of the Derbyshire land went to Lady Alathea Talbot who in 1606 married Thomas Howard , a grandson of the Attainted 4th Duke of Norfolk , who went by one of his subsidiary titles , the Earl of Arundel , although Charles II made his son Earl of Norfolk , and his grand-son had the Dukedom restored to him by reversal of the Act of Attainder .
The couple ’ s son Henry Frederick Howard , a Catholic , like all his family , was fairly prolific , producing at least five sons , of whom the youngest was Bernard , ( 1641-1717 ) who actually lived at Glossop and in all probability built there a new house on rolling parkland west of Old Glossop . From his time there long survived a chimney-piece dated 1672 and a priest ’ s hole , which survived later rebuilding . His son also Bernard ( 1674-1713 ) married a lady with a house situated in a less climatically inclement part of England , and moved out in 1712 , settling a lease for life on his cousin Lady Philippa Howard , a daughter of the 6th Duke of Norfolk . This was because her husband , Ralph Standish of Standish , near Wigan , was a younger son and they thus needed a house .
Thus the couple with their three sons and three daughters settled at Glossop , but clearly wanted a more modern house , so began to replace or rebuild Bernard Howard ’ s Jacobean house in 1729-31 . Work stopped in the latter year , probably with the house mostly complete , when Lady Philippa died , leaving Ralph with a single surviving child , a daughter , Cecilia , born in 1699 and by this time married to William Towneley of Towneley Hall , near Burnley and living away from home . He continued to live part of the time at the house but on his death in 1755 aged 84 , the house and its vast moorland estates reverted to the main Howard line in the person of Henry Howard , ( 1713-1787 ) who resumed using the house , but only as a shooting box in the season .
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This page ; top to bottom : Photograph printed from a lantern slide supplied by Richard Keene Ltd of Derby and probably taken in the 1860s . [ Derby Museum Trust ]
Glossop Hall , South front , c . 1890 . The two storey part to the right of the new conservatory is a remnant of the 1729 house , complete with bulls eye window , with the 1820 extension to the left . From a post card . [ M . Craven ]
Eighteenth century sketch of Royle Hall as rebuilt by Ralph Standish . [ Private collection ]
At this stage , the house itself bore the name Royle Hall after the ancient name of the pastures west and south of the old village on which it had been built . A sketch of it taken in the later 18th century shows a three bay house with a hipped roof , a single bay extension to the south and another to the north , but much lower and probably the small domestic ( Catholic ) chapel suggests that the house started off as a simple William-and-Mary ( that is , rather old fashioned for its date ) house of two storeys and attics .