Rufford Abbey - Country House

Country House

The estate was granted to George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury. It was partly demolished and converted to a country house between 1560 and 1590 by the 6th Earl.

The estate was inherited in 1626 by Mary Talbot, sister of the 7th and 8th Earls from whom it passed to her husband, Sir George Savile, 2nd Baronet. He remodelled the house in 1685–95. Sir William Savile, 3rd Baronet, George’s successor, made Rufford Abbey the seat of the Savile family after he burnt down the Saviles’ original home in order to prevent its being occupied by a Parliamentarian garrison during the Civil War, but was killed in action in 1644. It was next inhabited by his son, the Marquess of Halifax, the Lord Privy Seal, who died in 1695. In 1679, he constructed a new north wing on the site of the abbey church, containing reception rooms and a long gallery. He also built the large stable block to the right of the house. The surviving service wing (currently used as offices) was also added by the Saviles in the 17th century.

Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet died unmarried in 1784 and the estate passed to his nephew The Hon. Richard Lumley-Saunderson, later 6th Earl of Scarbrough. He was the younger son of the 4th Earl of Scarbrough and Barbara Savile, the 8th Baronet's sister and heiress. On his death the estate passed to his younger brother, the 7th Earl, and then to the latter's son the 8th Earl, who bequeathed the estate in turn to his second natural son Captain Henry Lumley-Savile. When Henry died in 1881 it passed to his younger brother Augustus William Lumley-Savile (1829–1887) and then to his eldest (but illegitimate) brother, the diplomat John Lumley-Savile, who assumed the surname of Savile only and was created Baron Savile the following year.

In 1931 the estate decended to the 3rd Baron Savile, who was only 12 years old, and the trustees took the decision to sell the estate off in lots. The abbey and park were bought by Nottinghamshire County Council in 1952. In 1956 the late 17th century north and east wings were demolished and the remaining west range and south service wing put into the care of the Ministry of Works. The house was later acquired by English Heritage