A Victorian guide book refers to the fantastic views "of five counties" from "the leads" of Watnall Hall. It got me wondering exactly what the leads were and which counties could be seen... "From the leads of Watnall you can get glimpses of five counties, and a view of garden and field, woodland and distant hill, which it would be difficult to match in this part of the country."
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| Watnall Hall - watercolour by local artist DA Richardson |
I assumed "leads" referred to something on the roof, perhaps the flatter areas of the roof, like on a church, covered in sheets of the pliable and waterproof metal called lead (pronounced "led" rather than "leed").
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| Willoughby House |
Confirmation of this comes from a contemporary house in Nottingham, Willoughby House on Low Pavement (now the HQ of fashion designer Paul Smith), which also has "leads"...
"In bygone days the view from the roof of a house was regarded as an asset, and easy access to the lead-covered portions of the roof was usually arranged by means of staircases. Readers of Samuel Pepys’ diary¹ will remember his constant reference to evenings spent talking and singing on "the leads." To prevent accidents, parapets were erected, of which the one surmounting Willoughby House is an excellent example." Aerial shots of Willoughby House show how wide its leads still are.
Samuel Pepys loved being out on his leads. In his famous diary on Wed 25th April 1666 he wrote...
"So home, and with my wife and Mercer spent our evening upon our new leads by our bedchamber singing, while Mrs. Mary Batelier looked out of the window to us, and we talked together, and at last bid good night. However, my wife and I staid there talking of several things with great pleasure till eleven o’clock at night, and it is a convenience I would not want for any thing in the world, it being, methinks, better than almost any roome in my house. So having, supped upon the leads, to bed."
In the pictures of Watnall Hall shown here, the older part of the hall on the left seems to have higher parapets so perhaps the leads are behind those. However, to see five counties you'd need to see all round including south over the hill where the family graveyard is. That would seem to require a higher vantage point so perhaps there was also lead on the rooftop or maybe the view described is from one of the dormer windows in the attic.
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| Watnall Hall c.1900. The leads are perhaps behind the slightly higher parapet on the left |
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| Aerial view of Watnall Hall showing the roof. |
The view from Watnall Hall's roof has been described several times. By Leonard Jacks in his 1881 guidebook to Nottinghamshire's great houses... "From the leads of Watnall you can get glimpses of five counties, and a view of garden and field, woodland and distant hill, which it would be difficult to match in this part of the country."
Reverend von Hube of Greasley St. Mary's church said in 1901... "The prospect from the leads of the mansion, to which years ago we ourselves were taken by the present owner, is absorbing in diversified and charming scenery, and an artist might long sit there without getting wearied of his work."
Even the view from ground level terrace at the top of the old steps sounds good... "You can see the hills of Annesley from the terrace."
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| Lady Maud Rolleston painted the view from her bedroom window in 1884 |
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| The back of the hall. The higher parapet of the older part of hall on the right would be a better candidate for having flatter lead-covered areas behind it. The new part of the hall seems to have little or no parapet or flat roof area that could see "five counties". |
The five counties were tricky to figure out but back in Leonard Jacks's time the counties were different and parts of the Derbyshire Dales above Hathersage, visible on a good day from Watnall, were in the riding of West Yorkshire. Local Facebooker Chris Love provided the definitive map² of what can be seen from Watnall. So the five "counties", I think, would have been Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and West Yorkshire. Lincolnshire is not visible from Watnall. Surprisingly, Belvoir Castle³ is marked in red on the map. I'd heard stories about it being visible but I've never seen it. Cannock and Burton-Upon-Trent in Staffs are just about visible.
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| The red areas can be seen from the top of the hill in Watnall. Surprisingly, Belvoir Castle is marked in red. I'd heard stories about it being visible but I've never seen it. |
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| The rear of the hall, from the family grave site, sheltered by the hill. The view in this direction would have been different to today as the hedges and covered reservoir were not there. The left of this part of the roof seems to have a flat area, another candidate for "the leads"? |
Notes and sources:
1 - Samuel Pepys loved being out on his leads "better than almost any roome in my house". This is from his diary on Wed 25th April 1666... "So home, and with my wife and Mercer spent our evening upon our new leads by our bedchamber singing, while Mrs. Mary Batelier looked out of the window to us, and we talked together, and at last bid good night. However, my wife and I staid there talking of several things with great pleasure till eleven o’clock at night, and it is a convenience I would not want for any thing in the world, it being, methinks, better than almost any roome in my house. So having, supped upon the leads, to bed."
2 - Local Facebooker Chris Love provided a definitive map of what can be seen from the website HeyWhatsThat https://www.heywhatsthat.com
3 - Confusingly, Belvoir Castle is to the east of Nottingham, but located in Leicestershire, with a Nottingham postcode and an address in Grantham (which is in Lincolnshire!) The castle is situated at the extreme northern corner of the county of Leicestershire and is sandwiched between Lincolnshire to the east and Nottinghamshire to the west, and overlooks the Vale of Belvoir to the northwest on the Nottinghamshire border.
L Jacks, The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families, (1881)
Rodolph Baron von Hube, Griseleia in Snotinghscire, (1901)
Percy Whatnall (ed.), Links with old Nottingham. Historical notes by J. Holland Walker, (1928)
Paul Smith on Willoughby House
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