The Rolleston's & the first subterranean ball at Welbeck Abbey

Today's "Tale from Watnall Hall" looks at the evidence that suggests Lady Maud Rolleston was the first to use famous subterranean ballroom at Welbeck Abbey for the Rufford Hunt Ball of 1891...

The Hampshire Advertiser of November 28th 1891 has an intriguing article (below) about Colonel Rolleston of Watnall Hall and his time as Master of the prestigious Rufford Hunt. He had taken up the position two years earlier, moving from Watnall Hall to live at Edwinstowe at the heart of the Rufford Hunt's area. 

His life with the Rufford would take him up a step of the social ladder, rubbing shoulders with the Duke of Portland and moving in his esteemed circles. Royal visitors to Nottinghamshire often stayed with the Duke at Welbeck Abbey and anyone familiar with ITV's Downton Abbey will appreciate this social hierarchy and the importance that fox hunting and horse riding had within it. 

The 1891 Rufford Hunt Ball at Welbeck Abbey's underground ballroom.
Looks a bit like Rolleston 3rd man from left...

In 1891, his wife Lady Maud Rolleston instigated the very first Rufford Hunt ball to be held in the impossibly grand underground ballroom of Welbeck Abbey. She enjoyed organising society soirees and balls as it was a throwback to her younger days growing up in Europe. It was perhaps also the very first ball of any kind held there as the ballroom's builder, the eccentric 5th Duke of Portland⁴ never actually used it as such. When the 6th Duke inherited the title and took over Welbeck in 1879 it was used as an enormous picture gallery. It wasn't even called the ballroom back then, it was called the Picture Gallery and it had originally been dug with the intention to use it as an underground chapel. The 6th Duke married in 1889 and there is no record of a ball before, his main interest being in horse racing.

The Hampshire Advertiser - Sat 28 Nov 1891 - A SUBTERRANEAN BALL AT WELBECK ABBEY.

When some two years ago Mr. Lancelot Rolleston, of Watnall, became Master of the Rufford Hounds, he and his wife, Lady Maud Rolleston, were anxious to bring the members of the hunt and their friends together at that pleasantest of all reunions, a hunt ball. Lady Maud mentioning the subject to the Duke of Portland he at once coincided with the idea, and added, "Why not have it at Welbeck ?" Why not, indeed! It would be an entertainment unique and unparalleled. It is needless to say the generous offer was accepted, and ever since great has been the excitement in the district round about the "Dukeries." To have a hunt ball was a great thing; but to have one at Welbeck, in the famous subterranean apartments, was to attain a height, or rather a depth never dreamt of. It came off on Wednesday night. 

Welbeck Abbey c.1900

The wonders of Welbeck begin directly the South Lodge is passed. At once the visitor plunged into a tunnel, lighted now by skylights, which made weird shadows across the dark roadway, now by flickering gaslights, which danced ahead like so many will-o-the-wisps, while the clatter of the horses’ hoofs resounds like continuous pistol shots in the vault-like atmosphere. For a mile and a half this uncanny journey proceeded, and was, seemingly, never to end, when suddenly we turned sharply to the left, and lo and behold, the great house stood before us, as we emerged from the archway, like a giant barring the path. The change was so abrupt as fair to take away one’s breath, as we left the gloom and came out into the pale silver light. There are critics who condemn the architectural characteristics of the abbey, but be that as it may, it is unquestionably a stately centrepiece to this princely domain. 

Welbeck's South Lodge tunnel entrance

The eccentric 5th Duke's bust

It is almost impossible to do justice to the superb effect presented by the noble hall, which is nearly 160ft. long and over 68ft. wide. It is not only a ballroom, it is a winter garden of the loveliest flowers and foliage, and the immense space allows the beautiful masses of orchids, ferns, palms lilies, giant chrysanthemums, and flowering shrubs. But amid the delicate branches and gorgeous blooms on a dais at the far end of the hall is the white marble bust of him who devised this wondrous palace of enchantment, to what purpose none have ever known, unless it were to give work and bread to his poorer neighbours. And while the music falls and rises with voluptuous swell ; and fair women and men mingle in harmony of colour and form beneath the glittering chandeliers which stud the ceiling; and the laughter rings amidst the faint sweet odours of flowers, the changeless countenance gleams white as snow and cold as ice amid the tropical greenery.

The underground ballroom is nearly 160ft long and over 68ft wide

"But are we really underground?" is the question which is constantly put by some fair unbeliever; and the doubt is fully justified. The descent to this delicious Avernus has been so easy; the elegance of these vast apartments so completely dispels ideas of vaults, catacombs, cellars, and other horrid places, that really when a lady begs her partner to open the window, so that she may strengthen her faith by looking at the garden-mould outside, one half expects him to throw open some secret casement and disclose the blackness not of earth, but of heaven. Moreover, the air is delightfully warm, owing to the hundreds of concealed hot-water pipes, while the myriad sky openings make ventilation absolutely perfect. It is wonderful, too, how the advantages of underground dwellings come forward. The dwellers in caves, hermits and smugglers of all nations, the Swiss Family Robinson, and even Hans Christian Andersen's Selfish Mole are cited as personages who were to be envied for frequenting habitations which, unlike those of the Primrose League¹, was never in evidence.

You can read about the grand dinner the Watnall locals gave for the Rollestons at Beauvale School when they left Watnall Hall to move to Edwinstowe here 

There are more "Tales from Watnall Hall" at the main website here 

Notes and sources:

1891 Hampshire Advertiser; 

1 - The Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primrose_League

2 - 5th Duke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bentinck,_5th_Duke_of_Portland

3 - As an interesting side note, DH Lawrence's patron Lady Ottoline Morrell would have been living at Welbeck Abbey at this time. Born in 1873 in Kent, her half-brother inherited the dukedom from his cousin in 1879 and her branch of the family moved in. She would have been 6. She left for Oxford in 1899 aged 26. At the time of the ball in 1891 she was 18, the perfect age for attending a glamorous ball! In 1902 she married Philip Morrell, had a townhouse in Bloomsbury and bought Garsington Manor in 1911. That's where Lawrence met her. They connected partly on their shared Nottinghamshire upbringing despite being of completely different classes.

"The dukedom was a title which belonged to the head of the Cavendish-Bentinck family and which passed to Lady Ottoline's branch upon the death of their cousin, the 5th Duke of Portland, in December 1879.[2] In 1899, Ottoline began studying political economy and Roman history as an out-student at Somerville College, Oxford.[4]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Ottoline_Morrell 

This 1875 book describes the ballroom and tunnels as they are being constructed at that time - Robert White - Worksop "The Dukery" https://archive.org/details/worksopthedukery01whit/page/144/mode/2up?q=underground&view=theater

The ball room was also used as a gymnasium when the abbey was used by the army as an officer cadet training centre in the late 20th century.

Having a ball at Welbeck https://www.mikehigginbottominterestingtimes.co.uk/?p=420

https://houseandheritage.org/tag/worksop-manor/

4 - Leonard Jacks in his Great Houses book of 1881 describes the newly built "ballroom" and the grand scale of the works and employment created by the 5th Duke. He provided a great deal of employment for the locals... "Closely adjoining the library is a subterranean apartment of magnificent proportions, into which the light of heaven is admitted by about forty large octagonal sunlights placed in rows in the vast ceiling. It was suggested that the Duke meant this for a church, but there is nothing ecclesiastical in its appearance. No, it is not a church. It looks more like the very antithesis of a church — a ball room, and what a ball room it would make ! Its floor is of oak, and it massive roof supported by iron girders. At one end it is entered from above by means of a spiral staircase ; at the other it is approached by subterranean passages. Its flat ceiling is beautifully ornamented, and the eight iron girders which support it are of massive proportions. The room has been, as it were, dug out of the solid clay ; it was commenced five years ago, and to-day workmen are very busy within its spacious walls. This underground building, of which there is such a quantity at Welbeck, strange though it may seem to those who read about it, has certain special advantages. There is not the slightest suspicion of draught in these rooms, they are thoroughly heated by steam pipes, are perfectly free from damp, and the means of lighting employed is most successful.

The workshops at Welbeck are much too vast to admit of anything but a casual mention. There are great sheds, in which every kind of work is done by skilled workmen, aided by the very best machinery. In one room circular saws are whirring, and doing their speedy work ; in another blacksmiths' fires are burning, and men are striking sparks from large pieces of hot iron ; in another gigantic shed men are repairing carts and implements belonging to the estate ; in another a huge slab of stone is succumbing to the fell movement of a frame-saw, whilst another piece is being smoothed by a " rubber," which is kept in perpetual motion by a small vertical engine. The waste steam from the boilers has been put to an excellent use ; by it the whole of the workshops and buildings connected with them are heated, the steam passing through iron pipes — an admirable arrangement. There are joiners' shops, painters' shops, and plumbers' shops, which help to form a Bet pf workshops, such as none but the largest contractors possess, In another part of these very extensive work yards are stacks of timber — giant slices of oak, sound and hard as adamant, and close by there are great boles of trees, which have been brought from the forest by one or other of the five monster traction engines that are housed in sheds by themselves. Other great sheds are filled with iron rods of all thicknesses, and iron piping of every dimension, for all manner of work is done in these shops. A new set of offices, the walls of stone, and the interior fitted in the very best style, with stone staircases, clerk's rooms, private rooms, postman's rooms, lavatories, and heated by piping, through which passes the " exhaust " steam from the adjoining works, have recently been completed, or nearly so, and opposite a new house for the house steward, with spacious and expensively-fitted rooms, in which pitch pine has been largely employed, has just been erected.

 In the late duke's time, people applying for employment at Welbeck were able to obtain it — no matter what they were — and the full market value has been paid for their labour."