History Slide 2

By the end of the 16th century, the Adams-es had held the manor on lease from the Duchy of Lancaster for several years, and, during the reign of James I, they were granted full possession by the Crown. However, their tenure was to last for less than a century. Apparently, due to the financial extravagance of the last two Adams squires of Owston, the family were forced to sell the property in the last years of the 17th century, and the estate records show that part of the purchase agreement was the settling of debts by the new owners. The beneficiary was Henry Cooke, second son of Sir Henry Cooke. of Wheatley. The Cookes had enjoyed a long association with the Doncaster area, with two members of the family serving as mayors of the town in the late 16th and early 17th centuries (Hunter, 1828: 478-9; Usher, 1964: 177).

Following the death of Henry Cooke in 1717, the property passed to his son, Anthony, whose most important legacy to the estate was the acquisition of a Parliamentary Act of Enclosure in 1760. The Act secured the enclosure of about 400 acres of common land, including Stockbridge Common, Owston Common and Tilts Hills. A number of cottages, farms, tenements, and pastures were affected, and some new roads and bridges were laid out. There was evidently some dispute with the tenantry over the loss of common rights. A commission was instituted to hear grievances, and it was noted that ‘several persons claim shares of the said intended enclosure alleging that they are possessed of ancient homesteads [sic] whereon ancient messages stood but have been pulled down upward of twenty years and no right of common [has been] claimed during all that time.’ The final settlement and apportionment involved Cooke in a certain amount of recompense to those tenants concerned, but his cause was aided by the fact that one of the commissions was his father-in-law, Anthony Eyre (Doncaster Archives DD.DC E 1/1).

Anthony Cooke’s death in 1763 left his widow, Mary, concerned with the business of consolidating the estate in preparation for its succession by her young son, Bryan. Her first task, in 1788, was to commission a survey of the property, which estimated that it comprised a total of 949 acres, which included the accretions made by the enclosure of eight years previously. Mrs. Cooke then embarked on a process of land acquisition to increase her son’s inheritance. At around the same time as she commissioned the survey, she was involved in the purchase of property worth £22,000 at Adwick-le-Street, and in 1775, she acquired the greater part of the lands of the Duke of Ancaster at Thorpe, amounting to over 1,000 acres, for £16,000 (Usher, 1964: 184)

Following his succession as lord of the manor in 1785 and marriage in the following year, Bryan Cooke’s main interests were in the redevelopment of the house and its immediate grounds in line with current fashions among the county gentry. According to Usher, Cooke had commissioned the architect William Lindley to draw up plans for the modernisation of the house in 1786, with the majority of the work being carried out between 1794 and 1795 under his direction. In the first year, building costs amounted to £818 10s. 3½d. and it was probably due to the increasing cost incurred that the plans were changed; the front elevation was to have been set off by elaborate colonnades, but this scheme was abandoned in favour of a plainer frontage involving ionic pilasters. Lindley’s final bill for the alterations came to £3,000. Pevsner and subsequent authorities have ascribed the refashioning of the house to William Porden; at present, the reason for this difference in interpretation is not known (Usher, 1964, p. 191; Pevsner, 1974, p. 389; Magilton, 1977, p. 62).

The remodelling of the hall in the currently fashionable neo-classical style was to be accompanied by the landscaping of the grounds. To this end, the landscape architect Humphry Repton was invited to visit Owston in the summer of 1793, and in the following year, he presented his proposals for improvement in the form of one of his customary ‘Red Books’, a number of which survive from estates around the country. The effects of his proposals were shown by water-colour illustrations, which included overlays depicting the various prospects of the estate before and after improvement. Well-known for his castigation of the ideas of Lancelot “Capability’ Brown, the leading practitioner of landscape gardening of the previous generation, Repton was not unduly flattering about the scene he met at Owston: ‘No situation in the grounds at Ouston can boast any very striking features or extensive prospects; but the verdure is good, the soil dry, there are many good trees (tho’ mostly in rows), yet with proper management these rows may be broken and grouped into less formal lines.’ (Usher, 1964; 191-2; Doncaster Museum; ‘The Red Book of Owston’) Available to purchase (PDF) at New Arcadian Press

Curiously, Repton’s roughly surveyed plan of the estate included the provision of a ‘new house’ on a site to the west, though the accompanying text indicates that no part of the house seems to justify any addition to it (Illus: Plan for landscaping of estate from Repton’s ‘Red Book’). Work was, of course, proceeding concurrently on the house on its present site. The main features of Repton’s plans were the creation of a number of wooded plantations to improve the view across the grounds of the estate, and the creation of a small pool to provide greater diversity in the landscape. He stressed that his overall plan, at Owston as elsewhere, was for the creation of a park, which, in his view, was the proper setting for the house of a country squire. Of the view from the house to the west, he comments: “This is certainly the most extensive of any view at Ouston, but I cannot think it the most desirable; a vast range over flat cornfields to distant high ground…is not the kind of scenery that long delights us in the view from a house; as I before observed, we expect park scenery [underlined] appropriated to the mansion.’ The impression of a country park was to be emphasised by new sweeping approach roads, which were to avoid the existing village, or else its houses were to be tidied up so as not to spoil the outlook. Less than satisfied with the unimpressive view of the estate which was to be had from the approach road from the north, he suggested that it should be lined with trees to hide the shabby buildings. (Doncaster Museup: “The Red Book of Owston’

As with the remodelling of the house, it was almost certainly the scale of costs involved which deterred Bryan Cooke from carrying out in detail Repton’s plans for the landscaping of the grounds. An idea of the costs involved can be gained from the surviving accounts relating to Repton’s work, along similar lines, at Corsham Court (Wills.). These show that the scheme, which included the provision of some 6,000 trees, amounted to £2,110. Faced with similar costs on his estate of Attingham Park (Shrops.) in the 1790s, Lord Berwick adopted Repton’s proposals on a limited basis (Bettey, 1993: 90, 92).

The death of Bryan Cooke in 1821 marked a change in the landed interests of the family. His marriage to the heiress of the estate of Gwysaney, near Mold in North Wales, meant that his son, Philip Davies-Cooke, inherited a joint concern. One of his first actions as the new squire of Owston was to go some way towards realising his father’s plans for the landscaping of Owston, and it appears that he carried out a scaled-down version of Repton’s plans in the 1820s. The lithe plan of 1842 shows the demesne area largely emparked, with some of the tree plantations perhaps owing their siting to Repton. The walled kitchen garden (as it appears in Repton’s plans) was evidently a feature of the later 18th century. Davies-Cooke spent a great deal of money on his Yorkshire estate, primarily in modernising tenants’ houses and farm buildings (Usher, 1964, pp. 206-212; Doncaster Archives: DZ.MD/88).[Illus: Tithe award map, 1842-3]

Having remedied some of the deficiencies in the grounds, he turned his attention to the house, the front elevation of which he regarded as unfashionably plain. In 1827, he employed an architect to redesign this part of the house, incorporating a remodelled portico supported on pillars, a flight of steps to the entrance and an ornamental balustrade. Yet, once again, a squire of Owston had over-reached himself and the plans were abandoned. Instead, they were realised on a smaller scale in the construction of Doncaster Lodge, at the main park entrance, to an ornamented neo-classical design (Usher, 1964 pp. 206-212).

Within a generation of the creation of the joint estate, the Davies-Cooke family were to abandon their immediate interests in Owston. The next squire, Philip Bryan Davies-Cooke, had suffered from chronic chest ailments since childhood and was advised to move away from the damp climate of Yorkshire by the family physician in 1881. In addition, adverse weather had periodically affected his income from the property. In 1866, for instance, the Great May Flood, as it became known in the area, left much of the estate under water for a long period, resulting in rent arrears of over £1,300. After a few years spent in Dorset, the family finally settled in Gwysaney in 1888 (Usher, 1964, p. 228).