Cannon Hall, Cawthorne: An Architectural History

Cannon Hall Museum, Park and Garden is situated close to the village of Cawthorne to the west of Barnsley in South Yorkshire. The Hall was rented and then owned by the Spencer and the Spencer Stanhope families from about 1658 until 1951 when it was sold to the Barnsley Corporation (later Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council).

The Early House: It is believed that estate and the associated buildings were named Cannon Hall after Gilbert Canun, who was the owner in the 13th century. By 1650 the manor and surrounding land were owned by Robert Hartley who passed them to his daughter, Margaret Hartley. John Spencer married Margaret’s widowed mother and rented Cannon Hall from his stepdaughter. In 1673, Margaret sold the estate to John Spencer for a considerably lower sum than her father had paid for it. In this period the building was a modest manor house with approximately ten rooms that were comfortably furnished.

The New House: After the death of the first John Spencer in 1681, his eldest son, also called John Spencer, decided to build a new house. The architect of the new house is believed to have been John Etty of York (c.1634-1708) who was designing town houses in York and the surrounding areas in the 1690s. By 1698 John Spencer had signed a number of contracts with builders and craftsmen for windows and casting lead, implying the work was starting in earnest.

The house that was built had a square floor plan and was three and half storeys high. This included cellars, the main living storey, bedrooms and an attic story for servants. It is possible that Cannon Hall had sash windows at this period as John Etty was specifying these for other buildings he designed in the 1690s. These would have been expensive as they required larger panes of glass than more traditional mullion and transom windows. The interiors were mostly designed by William Thornton of York and the existing staircase is very much in the style of his work, referred to as ‘The York School’. William Thornton also invoiced for ‘oak wainscott’ which might refer to the panelling which is now in the Oak Bedroom. The ceiling in the Oak Bedroom is also likely to date from this period of the building and is known as the ‘simply stellar’ pattern.

The 1730s to the 1750s

Following the death of John Spencer in 1729, Cannon Hall was inherited by his son, William. From the 1730s through the 1750s, William Spencer made some improvements across the estate including new farm buildings and formal gardens to the southeast of the Hall. By this period, the Hall had about 28 rooms with a Stone Parlour, Musick Room and Drawing Room on the main floor. The Hall was accessed from the south side with a wooden staircase leading to the bedroom floor. The bedrooms generally had closets for washing and dressing but the ‘Best Room’ had an adjoining dressing room.

The 1760s Building Campaign

Once John Spencer inherited the Hall and estate from his father in 1756 he quickly set about developing it into a grander building. A plan from 1760 shows the existing central part of Cannon Hall but with wings added to create extra living space. These wings were added during the 1760s under the supervision of the architect John Carr of York who was working on many other country houses across Yorkshire in this period. In January 1765 John Carr dined at Cannon Hall and had arranged with many other people to complete the work. These included a mason, John Marsden, and James Henderson who specialised in decorative plasterwork.

The new wings contained a Library for John Spencer’s growing collection of books and a bedroom and dressing room for his own use on the ground floor on the west side. The east side had offices for the steward and the butler.  These were divided from a large Drawing Room that was fitted out with gilded furniture in the fashionable French style by the cabinet makers Wright and Elwick of Wakefield.  Work seems to have been completed in 1768.

Cannon Hall in the 1770s and 1780s

At his death John Spencer gifted Cannon Hall and estate to his nephew, Walter Stanhope (who changed his name to Walter Spencer Stanhope). John Spencer never married but did have one son, John Smith, whom he supported financially but who could not inherit. Walter Spencer Stanhope set about modernising the building which included moving the oak panelling, which dated to the 1700s, out of the parlour on the ground floor and placing it in the bedroom upstairs (now the Oak Bedroom). The parlour he turned into a Drawing Room with elegant columns to support the rooms above. He turned his uncle’s Drawing Room into a dedicated Dining Room, which had become fashionable by the 1770s.

Walter also changed the way people entered the building by moving the stairs from the south entrance to behind his new Drawing Room. The hall on the north side became the main Entrance Hall and was fitted out by John Carr of York in neo-classical style with new plasterwork and a decorative stone floor.

In 1779 the foundation stone was laid for a new kitchen and was most likely designed by John Carr as it fits the style of his kitchens at other country houses. At this point Walter was also keen to bring better plumbing into the house and a design for a water closet with a ventilator is still extant.

Adding a Second Storey in the 1790s

When John Spencer added wings to Cannon Hall in the 1760s, he decided that he only needed these to be single storey as he did not need many bedrooms for his small household. By the 1790s, Walter Spencer Stanhope had married the heiress, Mary Winifred Pulleine and had many children. They decided that adding a second storey to the wings of the Hall would be sensible to provide more bedroom accommodation. They firstly consulted John Carr of York but decided his estimate was too expensive and they then employed the architect, Thomas Johnson. New bedrooms were added alongside a new set of rooms above the kitchens. Water closets with mechanical toilets were also built.

The inventory taken of the house in 1821, just after the death of Walter Spencer Stanhope, indicates a substantial house with many rooms. As well as many bedrooms upstairs and the main rooms on the ground floor, there was also a Billiard Room.

The 19^th Century

For most of the 19^th Century, Cannon Hall met the needs of its family and few changes took place within the main building. However, in 1891 Sir Walter and Elizabeth Spencer Stanhope decided a new Ballroom would be added to celebrate the marriage of their eldest son. The family referred to the room as The Gallery. It was designed in Jacobean style and the panelling was completed by the estate carpenters. The chimney piece was imported from Florence where Sir Walter’s brother, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, was living. John Roddam was an artist loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and painted the panels that still decorate the chimney piece.

An inventory of the Hall was completed in 1914, a few years after the death of Sir Walter Spencer Stanhope. At this time the main rooms were hung with family paintings by artists such as John Hoppner and Daniel Gardner which are now once again on display at Cannon Hall Museum. The Billiard Room was still in use but was also joined by a theatre with a small stage that the family used for amateur productions. The coach house had a Brougham carriage but also a Raleigh car indicating how technology was changing.

The 20^th Century

During the Second World War the Hall was subdivided to be used by the family, Army Officers and evacuees whilst the land outside housed soldiers from Canada, Britain and Poland at differing times. John Montague Spencer Stanhope died in 1944 which meant that very high death duties needed to be paid by his daughter, Elizabeth Spencer Stanhope. Despite sales of property and land, the decision was eventually made to sell Cannon Hall. The Hall, gardens and 70 acres were sold to the Barnsley Corporation in 1951 who opened the Hall to the public as a museum in 1957. When the Barnsley Corporation bought the Hall, most of the furniture, objects and paintings had already been sold. Some of these items have been returned to Cannon Hall since 1951, but many of the contents paintings are not original to the house.