Cantley Hall is a Georgian mansion set in 160 hectares,[1] in the village of Old Cantley just outside Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England.
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Cantley Hall was probably a home from around the 7th or 8th century, owned by a Saxon called Tochi prior to the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, after which it probably went to the Everingham's or Everingham Ancestors. By 1209 it was known as Kanteleia, and Cauntele in 1246. By 1280 it was in the possession of Robert de Everingham. By the late 15th century the name of Cantley had been established and remained,[2] while the residents of the estate were the Smith family.[3]
In 1610, Hugh Childers the Mayor of Doncaster from 1604, add Cantley Hall to the existing families traditional home at Carr House, by buying the estate from the Stapleton family. In 1714 Leonard Childers of Cantley Hall bred the famous stallion "Flying Childers," son of "Darley Arabian." Although "Flying Childers" was later sold to the Duke of Devonshire, he was never beaten and is still regarded as one of the fastest horses ever raced. He later retired to Chatsworth House, Derbyshire although he mainly covered mares owned by the Duke, as he was too far away from the main breeding centre of Yorkshire.[4][5] Between 1785 and 1786, Childers Walbank Childers remodelled Cantley Hall into an impressive country mansion, known for some time as Cantley Lodge,[2] and created the shooting forest Black Carr Plantation.[6] His son William Walbanke Childers was later Canon of Ely from 1803 to 1833.[7] By the mid-19th century, John Walbanke Childers (1798–1886) owned 5,700 acres (23 km2) in the Riding (ie - Cantley Hall estate), 7400 in Cambridgeshire and 200 in Lincolnshire;[8][9] while his brother Charles Childers was Rector of Armthorpe from 1833 to 1843.[7] In 1893 Mrs Childers, a staunch Anglo-Catholic, was patron for the refurbishment of Cantley Church by Sir John Ninian Comper.[10]
In 1901 the Childers family sold Cantley Hall and its residual 5,000 acres (20 km2)[11] to the Fitzwilliam family for extraction of its coal reserves, and left for their Cambridgeshire estate.
After World War II, the Fitzwilliam family faced with quickly declining revenues from their land, started selling off parts of the estate, including Black Carr Plantation in 1950 to Oates Brothers Timber Merchants.[6] By the late 1980s, Cantley Hall was occupied by an old lady relative of the Fitzwilliams and owners of Doncaster Brewery.[12] After she died in 1988, a sale of contents was held,[13] and the house sold to car magnate John Carnell.
In 1990, Carnell sold Cantley Hall to Graham Kirkham, later Baron Kirkham of Old Cantley, founder and chairmen of sofa retailer Dfs.[14]