Hooton Pagnell Hall, once home of the Warde family, is now a Grade II listed luxury boutique bed and breakfast, wedding, and events venue. Despite improvements and extensions over time, the core of the building dates from the 14th century. Prior to the present house, in Norman times, Sir Ralph de Paganell — whose name is reflected in the current name of the house and village — was lord of the manor.
A flight of 13 steps leads to the 11th-century All Saints Church, where several Norman features survive, including a massive arch and traces of herringbone masonry. There is an ancient font and a fine 18th-century marquetry pulpit, but the most unusual feature is the Victorian carillon, which plays a different tune every day of the week, every three hours.
The route through the village leads past picturesque limestone cottages; Hooton Pagnell's outward appearance has changed little since the Middle Ages. From the remains of a 13th-century butter cross there is a magnificent view westward towards the Pennines. The elegant Frickley Hall stands in the village of Frickley about a mile across green fields to the west, while the despairing and reclaimed site of Frickley and South Elmsall Colliery looms to the north-west. Almost directly beneath the butter cross is the village pound, a stone-walled enclosure for stray cattle.
You leave the village along a lane called Narrow Balk ("balk" being a local name for farm tracks wide enough for farm carts). Narrow Balk runs parallel to the line of medieval strip fields, and the tall hedgerows are a haven for a proliferation of wildflowers including dog rose, scabious, and knapweed.
The village of Brodsworth lies in a peaceful valley. Hidden among the trees on the hillside is Brodsworth Hall, which has been described as the most complete example of a Victorian country house in England. The Old Hall in the park was the home of the Thellussons, a French Huguenot family who came to England in 1750 and created a family fortune based on banking. Charles Sabine Thellusson had the present hall built in the 1860s. The last resident of the house was Sylvia Grant-Dalton (wife of Captain Grant-Dalton), who fought a losing battle for 57 years against leaking roofs on the mansion and land subsidence from nearby coal mining. After her death in 1988, her daughter Pamela Williams gave the Hall and gardens to English Heritage in 1990.
St Michael and All Angels Church stands not far from the hall in a peaceful woodland setting, containing memorials to the Thellussons and many medieval features. Subsidence caused by mining has taken its toll on the church, which stood for many years swathed in scaffolding (much of the restoration was undertaken by British Coal). After viewing the church, you return to Narrow Balk and Hooton Pagnell on a pleasant byway alongside the trees of Broadrick Holt.
Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
