My recent adventures in researching the history of houses has taken me to a farm house for sale in Nottinghamshire, which I was excited to discover, had a fabulous hidden link to a royal visitor.
The house is an unassuming farm cottage and on first glance wouldn’t offer much historically. Located on the Earl Manvers Estate of Holme Pierrepont the property had been attached to the Earl’s Home Farm from the early 19th century. I managed to trace the former occupants, the earliest being a farming family whose ancestors had in fact lived in Holme Pierrepont since the early 1600s.
The Home Farm cottage was also the home of the Earl’s prized Shorthorn cattle. But, it was through looking at what was happening nearby that I found that the farmhouse had in fact been visited by King Edward VIII!
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During the 1920s, Edward, then Prince of Wales was in a relationship with Freda Dudley Ward (before he met Mrs Wallis Simpson), who lived nearby at Lamcote House (also owned by Earl Manvers, sadly now demolished). When Edward came to visit, he often joined Earl Manvers for a spot of hunting and it was on these occasions that the future King Edward VIII is believed to have visited the cottage and in particular popped into the kitchen – perhaps for a cup of tea!
I have always claimed that every house has a story to tell, so I was very pleased when I discovered that the seemingly ordinary cottage at Holme Pierrepont had such a dramatic story connected to a visitor who used to drop by.
Find out more information about Holme Lane, Holme Pierrepont
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