Anne Estate Could Be Traced Back To Before The Normans

ACCORDING to clauses in Henry Spencer’s 1942 and 1943 sales catalogues, the Anne Arms and Burghwallis Club were not part of the Anne Estate around Burghwallis.

They are not listed in the Lots being sold and anyone buying any part of the estate was not allowed to erect a hotel, public house, beer house or club on the land and could not sell alcoholic beverages in the open air or indoors in any building either already on or to be built on the land.

The estate on October 15, 1942  measured more than 2,251 acres and in addition to Burghwallis Hall there were 15 farms, cottages and plantations. Skellow Mill, which included a four bedroomed house, was included along  with the 211 acre farm known as Trumfleet Grange and two Haywood Farms of 61 and 59 acres plus Gunns Farm and South farm which were both at Sutton. Burghwallis Wood which occupied 69 acres and 29 acre Sourpiece Wood at Skellow were not bought at the 1942 sale in The Danum (hotel) and so they along with the 48  acre  Rushy Moor  Plantation, Shirley  Wood  and  Shirley  Pool  plus 182 acre Rushy Moor Farm, Vine Farm at Sutton  and the 61 acre Haywood Farm were sold in the Woolpack Hotel on June 19, 1943.

Dozens  of  cottages,  building sites, and other, properties were also sold from the Anne estate, whose origins could be traced in one from and another before the Norman Conquest.

When the Domesday Book was compiled immediately after Wil­liam’s  victory,  Burghwallis   was simply known as Burg and had been given to one of the Norman king’s barons, William Pictavus. In the 13th century Robert Pictavus’s daughter, Dionysia, married into the Wallis family. They occupied the house and the estate became known as Burghwallis. In 1377, another descendant of Pictavus -Elizabeth- married   Sir  William   Gascoigne who became Lord Chief justice of England and Burghwallis became a seat of the Gascoigne family for two  centuries  but  only junior members of  the  family actually lived  in the hall.

Barbara Gascoigne married into the West family in the 16th century and so for a short time they owned the property before it passed to the Anne family of Frickley in the reign of Edward II. Frickley Hall was the seat or main house of the Anne family and Burghwallis Hall was usually oc­cupied by the eldest son or widow of successive squires until Frickley was sold about 1765.

During the Plague years, anyone from outside Burghwallis had to drop their money into a well to pay for produce from the estate. No-one was allowed to handle coins or anything else direct from a stranger for fear of introducing infection to the village.

Land at Trumfleet and Sutton was added to the estate by Michael Tasburgh  Anne in the early 19th century and he also added a south wing to the hall in 1813. The oldest part of the property was believed to be the great hall or living room, dating from the 13th century.

 Kept low profile

The Anne  family were Roman Catholics but through keeping a low profile  and a bit of astute ducking and diving they came through the Reformation rela­tively unscathed although they never complied with Henry VIII’s edicts.

There are interesting links between the Anne family and other families whose names such as Moore, Rockey and Wentworth are well known from times of national crisis. Sir William Anne was the constable of Tickhill Castle during the reign of Edward II and was living there when it was besieged.

When the hall was sold in 1942 it still had an unobtrusive priest’s hole behind the staircase leading to a narrow flight of steps into the back yard. There were two halls, three large reception rooms, a billiards room, six principal bedrooms, which each had dressing rooms, three secondary bedrooms, two bathrooms plus domestic offices staff quarters, outbuildings, stabling and a garage.

Reprinted from the Doncaster Courier June 1st 1999 “Local History” by Grace Paterson