Lost Dukeries mansion's past revealed in exhibition

The history of a lost stately home in Nottinghamshire is being detailed in a new exhibition.

Academics and archivists from the University of Nottingham have teamed up with the National Trust to tell the tale of Clumber House - from its heyday to eventual demolition in the 1930s.

The exhibition will display items ranging from accounts of the skilled tradesmen who built the house to records scorched by the fire which wrecked the mansion.

Running until spring 2027, it is being hosted in the Discovery Centre, part of the Clumber Park outbuildings which survived the demolition of the main building.

Clumber House was the family home of the Dukes of Newcastle and in the 19th Century welcomed famous visitors including Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria.

It formed part of a string of huge estates along with Welbeck Abbey, Thoresby Hall and Worksop Manor, known as The Dukeries.

Renowned for its architecture and impressive dining room, library and works of art, Clumber was devastated by major fires in 1879 and 1912.

The house was officially closed after the death of the 7th Duke of Newcastle in 1928 and demolished in 1938.

The National Trust took over the site in 1946 and the 3,800-acre (1,537-hectare) parkland, heath and woods are now visited by more than 700,000 people each year.

Dr Richard Gaunt, an expert on the 4th Duke of Newcastle, worked alongside Dr Charlotte May and Kathryn Steenson from the university's Manuscripts and Special Collections team.

Gaunt said: "The archives are rich with insights into the history of Clumber House, and this new exhibition highlights the distinctive contribution which was made by individual owners and a wealth of estate staff over successive generations."

On display are items designed to reflect the whole life of the house, from copies of records from the skilled tradesmen who built it, copies of catalogues produced just before its demolition, and a digital version of the visitor book showing the signatures of some of the guests who stayed there from the 1890s.

More personal documents are also included, such as drawings by the 4th Duke's young children who recorded their favourite pets and sketched the servants who worked there.

Steenson said: "Once upon a time most of these documents would have been kept at Clumber House – there are even a few with scorch marks that bear witness to the fires.

"It's lovely to be able to work with the amazing team at the National Trust [to] bring them home."

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