This week I am looking at the Grade II listed country house ‘The Hollies’. It has been a farm house since the early 17th century, but there is some speculation it could even date back to the early 16th century, while a timber study has also established that some of the original internal beams date back to the 13th century.
The Hollies has sat within the quiet community of Bathley in Nottinghamshire for over 400 years and early records from the 17th century show that it was formerly home to prominent local landowner, Roger Scrymshaw. During this early period the house was not named (in fact it wasn’t named or numbered until the 20th century) and would have been the home of a tenant farmer. By the early 1700s the house had passed into the hands of another prominent landowning family, the Capps. The house passed through a number of generations of gentleman farmers of the Capps family, until in the 1840s it was the home of John Capps. At the time of the 1841 census, John Capps was 70 years old and living in the house with his 30 year old wife, Mary, and eight month old son, Andrew.
John Capps died a short time later, but his widow, Mary and her son Andrew, retained the house and were recorded as ‘gentry’ in the local directories for the area. Mary Capps and her eldest son Andrew continued to maintain the house and run the farm throughout the 19th century, but after 200 years in the hands of the Capps family, ‘The Hollies’ was sold in the early years of the 20th century.
The Inland Revenue valuation survey in 1910 gives some insight into what the house was like at this time, described as an ‘old fashioned house in fair repair’ and the annual rent was £60. From 1907, the house had been the home of Alfred and Fanny Shrive, both in their 60s. Alfred and Fanny had nine children, but at the time of the 1911 census only three still remained in the house, including 26 year old unmarried daughter Daisy who was working as a teacher in the local school.
By the 1930s the house, now officially named ‘The Hollies’, was home to George and Annie Blore. The Blore family continued to live in the house and run the farm throughout the war years and only left this corner of Bathley in the 1960s.
Today, Grade II listed ‘The Hollies’ is full of character from over 400 years of history in this quiet part of Nottinghamshire. The house is timber framed and features exposed timber beams dating back to 1296.
* More information about The Hollies.
* See the full history of the house
