"Clumber Park & The Dukes of Newcastle "
May 2007 Meeting Report
Guest Speaker - John Fletcher
The May 2007 meeting of The Keyworth & District Local History Society was held in The Centenary Lounge, Keyworth on 4th May 2007. Only around forty members were in attendance for a presentation by John Fletcher on “Clumber Park & The Dukes of Newcastle”. John has spent many years researching history of Clumber Park and its occupants and has written two books on the subject. The presentation was in the form of a Powerpoint presentation on a digital projector.
John’s presentation began by giving a brief history of the men who carried the title of The Duke of Newcastle. He explained that the Newcastle in question referred to Newcastle-under-Lyne and not the more famous and well known Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There have been ten Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne ranging in character from dissolute bankrupts to caring and conscientious individuals. King George II originally created the title in 1756 for Thomas Pelham-Holles who at that time was also, confusingly, The Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was one of the richest and most influential personages in the land and one of the most illustrious carriers of the title, being the Prime Minister from 1754 to 1756. The second duke was Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton and he inherited the title upon the death of the first duke in 1768 who was Henry’s uncle. Henry carried the title of Earl of Lincoln which was to become the title carried by the heir to the title of Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne. It was this 2nd Duke of Newcastle who established the Ducal seat at Clumber and also gave his name to the breeed of spaniel dog that carried his ducal name.
It was the 4th Duke of Newcastle, Henry Pelham-Clinton, who infuriated a section of the public in Nottingham to such an extent that they rioted in 1831 and burnt down the house that he owned on the site of Nottingham Castle. The Duke was staunch supporter of the traditional establishment of Church, Country and State. He was fiercely opposed to Catholic emancipation and electoral reform. It was his opposition to the 1st Reform Act which so incensed that section of Nottingham’s populace that resulted in the infamous riot. So reactionary was the Duke that one of his less charitable opponents commented that “he was the sort of man that gave bigotry a bad name”. The was also famous for the size of his family, he fathered 14 children in 15 years.
The 4th Duke died in 1851 and was succeeded by his his eldest son, again named Henry. This Duke pursued a career in politics and was a close, personal friend of William Gladstone. He eventually rose to the position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. He earned the nickname of “The Crimean Duke” for the part that he played in his governmental role in that war. The 5th Duke died in 1864 and was suceeded by his eldest son Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton. It was traditional in the family that, on marriage, the name of the wife’s family, if sufficiently impressive, was incorporated into the family name. This gave rise to some quite convoluted names. It was the 6th Duke that managed to bring the family name of Clinton into disrepute. He spent the estate’s money on buying horses and gambling, living well beyond his means to such an extent that he became bankrupt and fled the country to escape from his creditors. At the time of his flight he was alleged to owe his creditors £230,000!. Queen Victoria is famously alleged to have written of him in her diary that he was “worthless”. Another of his brothers became infamous for associating with transvestites and between the Duke and that brother the name of Clinton began to be held in contempt. However, the 6th Duke managed to extricate himself from his monetary problems by marrying the wealthy heiress Henrietta Hope. This marriage cleared the Duke’s outstanding debts and also resulted in an income of £50,000 per annum from Henrietta’s estate.
The 6th Duke died in 1879 and was suceeded by his eldest son Henry Pelham-Clinton, the 7th person to become Duke of Newcastle. However, the 7th Duke was only 14 years old when he inherited the title and had to wait until he was 21 years of age before he could claim his inheritance. In 1879,and only 4 weeks after inheriting the title, there was a serious fire at Clumber House and much of the property was destroyed. The Sun Life Assurance Company paid out £34,000 in compensation for the fire and this money went to rebuilding Clumber House in 1886. The 7th Duke was nicknamed “The Little Duke”, a reference to his small size. The Duke was plagued by ill-health. As part of the rebuilding of Clumber House the Duke had a chapel built adjacent to the house. The chapel opened in 1889 and it was there that the Duke married his young bride Kathleen Candy. The couple were the youngest Duke and Duchess in England. They never had any children, though the Duke often looked after the children of some of his relatives. He was a well-liked man who took a genuine interest in the welfare of his estate workers and their families. He did much to restote the honour of the family name. During the Great War The Clumber Troop was raised as a feeder to The Sherwood Rangers. Fifty-seven men went to fight of which nineteen were to lose their lives serving their King and Country. One of the most unfortunate of these men was surely Rudolph Schmidt. He was shot and invalided home twice before being sent to the front for the third time. It proved to be third time unlucky for poor Rudolph was killed. One of the Duke’s passions was travelling around the country. He had a horse-drawn caravan constructed which he named “The Bohemian” and, with his wife, roamed around the English countryside. In 1927, in an attempt to protect the estate from crippling death duties, the Duke sold off much of his personal property to The London & Fort George Land Company for £1,000,000. Many of the landed gentry of the day did the same thing. It was basically a tax dodge to avoid the new legislation that had been introduced to curb the continuation of handed-down wealth. The 7th Duke died in 1928 and was buried at Eton. It was in the autumn of 2003 that our speaker, John Fletcher, managed to rediscover the overgrown grave of the late Duke.
The 8th Duke, Francis Pelham Clinton-Hope suceeded to the title in 1928. The 8th Duke enjoyed a lavish and extravagent life-style, living beyond his means to such an extent that it became necessary to sell one of the family’s most valuable assets, the infamous Hope Diamond. Ill fortune is reputed to befall the owner of this magnificent gem which now resides in the Smithsonian Institute in The United States. The 8th Duke was certainly unlucky enough to have a foot amputated following being shot accidentally by an estate worker. Whether or not the diamond was held to blame is not known!
The 8th Duke was suceeded by his eldest son, Henry Pelham-Clinton-Hope who became Duke on his father’s death in 1941. He had no interest in the title or the estate. He had no male heirs and when he too died in November 1988 the title passed to a cousin of his, Edward Pelham-Clinton. Edward also had no interest in the title and had only been the 10th Duke for a few short weeks when he too died on Christmas Day 1988. Edward had no male heirs or relatives and the title Duke of Newcastle under Lyne died with him.
The presentation then continued with a series of slides showing the house and grounds at Clumber, botrh in its heyday and as the property fell into neglect and decay. No one could be found to buy the property, The National Trust had been approached but they were not interested and Clumber House was finally demolished in 1938. The armed forces occupied Clumber Park during the Second World War. One of the uses that the park was put to was that of ammunition dump, so great was the ammount of ammunition stored there that it became the single largest dump in England. Luckily there were never any unfortunate incidents! The park was eventually taken over by The National Trust and once again enjoys the care and attention that makes it such an enjoyable and interesting place to visit.
It was well after 9.00pm before the presentation was completed but John managed to hold the attention of the audience throughout with his informative, interesting, educational and entertaining presentation on a subject on which he is an undoubted expert. His enthusiasm for his subject was clearly apparent to the point that it became infectious. Well done John for giving us all a very enjoyable evening!