Wilsic Hall
Built by the Tofield family, Wilsic Hall has subsequently had several owners before becoming a Country Club then from 1961-1975 a Hotel, after which it was bought by the Hesley Group for use as a residential school, now closed. The Hall was given a Grade II listing in 1968 and several trees in the grounds were given tree preservation orders. The Hall is on the site of an earlier mansion whose cellars still exist beneath the present building. The Tofield family lived in this earlier property.
Thomas Tofield II inherited the estate after the death of his father in 1717. It is likely that a loan taken out by Thomas Tofield II in 1741 helped to pay for the central block of the present Hall to be rebuilt. His son Thomas Tofield III inherited the property and moved in with his wife and children when his mother died in 1770. It is this Thomas, shown right in a portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, who as well as being a civil engineer involved in the draining of Potteric Carr, was a botanist of renown. His name, for example, was given to a group of alpine plants, one of which was Tofield’s Asphodel (Tofieldia Calyculata). He also compiled a herbarium which in 1793 came into the possession of Dr Younge of Sheffield, a Fellow of the Linnean Society. There are memorial plaques to the Tofield family in St Mary’s Church, Tickhill.
In his 1804 book on Doncaster and neighbouring settlements, Edward Miller records that a William Hyde then lived at Wilsic Hall. Although unproductive when ploughed, through judicious draining of the land and converting it to pasture he kept 500 sheep on it and sold yearling sheep for two and a half guineas each. Hyde sold the property in 1805.
One of the subsequent owners was William Walker a barrister-at-law whose lawyer father died at the Hall in 1830. Educated at Repton School and Trinity College, Cambridge, William studied for the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, became a judge for the Sheffield Division of Yorkshire County Court, served as a West Riding J.P. and was a deputy lieutenant for the West Riding. He lived at Wilsic Hall with his younger brother Thomas and widowed mother Margaret who died in 1862 aged 85. Thomas, who as well as being a barrister was also Captain of the Tickhill troop of the 1st West Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry. In addition, Thomas was treasurer and secretary of the Tickhill Castle Archers’ Society formed in 1833 and was on the management Committee of the Yorkshire Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.
William married Alice Elizabeth Parker, daughter of Hugh Parker J.P. who lived at Sunderland House, Tickhill, on 6 January 1858 at St Mary’s Church. He died at Wilsic Hall on 21 April 1881 having been described as a judge ‘of spotless integrity’. His wife, who remained at the Hall until her death in 1903, and his brother Thomas erected a reredos in Wadworth Church in memory of William. At Alice’s funeral at Stainton it was noted that she had been ‘a kind and generous lady, who subscribed liberally to local objects.’ A stained glass window in the Lady Chapel atSt John’s Church, Wadworth, was inserted in memory of William and Anne by their nephews and nieces in October 1904. Another window in memory of Alice had already been erected in St John’s Church by friends and parishioners in 1903. In her will Alice left her property at Wilsic to her niece Caroline Alice France-Hayhurst, wife of the Rev Thomas France-Hayhurst, rector of Davenham, Cheshire. They lived at Wilsic Hall until their deaths in 1919 when it was bought by Barnsley British Co-operative Society.
Further research into Wilsic Hall is ongoing. If anyone has memories of visiting Wilsic Hall Country Club or Hotel please let us know through the TDLHS website.