Entrance to the Constitution Club Update

The Constitution Club or originally the Manor House. This is a house of some note in the town but I bet we have all miss the wonderful gates at its entrance.

 The design is called a “Cypher” and bears initials of either the maker or the customer. This was common in the late 18th C. It looks like the initials JB. Now thought to be EJB. They are always done in reverse as well so the design looks symmetrical and can be viewed from either side.

The gates are thought to have been made by Robert Bakewell of Derby.

Source Simon Grant Jones

 THE BUCKWORTHS

CLEY HALL, High Street, Spalding, was built in 1754 by Theophilus Buckworth. This family had flourished in Spalding previous to that date for about a century and had formerly resided at Pinchbeck where they held considerable estates.

He married Miss Cley, and their daughter, Ann Elizabeth, in 1787, married Maurice, eldest son of Colonel Johnson, of Ayscoughfee Hall. This house eventually passed into the hands of his grandson, Theophilus Fairfax Johnson, he leaving there in 1841 to take up his abode at Holland House, and his son, Theophilus Maurice Stephen Johnson, continued to live at Cley Hall until his father’s death in 1853, when he then went to reside at Holland House. Theophilus Buckworth, who was the first person who bought wheat in Spalding for exportation, was the nephew of Everard Buckworth, Councillor, who built the Manor House (now the Conservative Club) in 1727.

Everard Buckworth was a barrister and descended from Sir John Buckworth, Bart. He married Jane, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Henry Pell, of Dembleby. His son, Thomas Buckworth, died in 1740, aged thirtysix. He married Elizabeth (born 1708, died 1771), daughter and one of the four co-heiresses of Mr. Lot Mael, a wealthy Spalding draper who lived at Wistaria Lodge, Double Street. They had two daughters, Ann and Jane, who both died in 1814, aged eighty-one and eighty respectively. These ladies lived together from their infancy and were buried in Surfleet Church. Their monument was naturally intended for erection in the place of burial, but a fee of £20 was demanded by the church authorities and, thinking that was excessive, their relative, the Rev. Dr. Maurice Johnson, minister of Spalding, allowed the monument to be placed in Spalding Church.

The Buckworths resided little in Spalding during the nineteenth century, though they held considerable estates here which were managed by the Bonners, who were prominent solicitors in Spalding during most of last century, and who held the appointment of steward of the manor. The Buckworths resided at Cockley Cley, Norfolk, a huge estate inherited through Theophilus Buckworth’s wife.

The last of the family to be lord of the manor had a long minority and when he came of age found himself the possessor of a vast fortune, estimated at considerably over half a million pounds. A young man with all this wealth would naturally soon begin to make it fly, and he was no exception to the rule. He bought numerous thoroughbreds and for many years was a prominent figure on all the leading racecourses. He threw his money about like water, expecting it would last forever, but just before the Great War his stewards warned him of the seriousness of his financial position and advised him to considerably curtail his expenditure, but to no avail; he thought they were joking and that his purse was inexhaustible. Then the crash came and in 1913, his huge estates in Norfolk, Dembleby, Pinchbeck, Moulton, etc., were sold in the Corn Exchange, Spalding, and, when the creditors had had their pickings, he found himself practically penniless. He had previously married a barmaid to whom a son was born. This last link of a one-time influential Spalding family will probably make good, but his father is past retrieving the family fortunes. This Richard Buckworth was the last of that name to be lord of the manor and he was succeeded by his steward, E. V. H. Blyton, who recently died, and the lordship is now in the hands of his trustees.

Source: Gooch – History of Spalding

Lets hope that it is being properly preserved and listed.