• plumptre_hospital
  • Fredville House and the Majesty Oak circa 1800
  • Fredville library pre-WW1
  • An 1860's view of the conservatory
  • The house viewed from within the walled garden
  • A junior dormitory
  • The school's indoor swimming pool

Additional information, the descriptions on some the pictures have had to be abbreviated. The full descriptions can be found below:-

Plumptre House, Nottingham, from Deering’s History of Nottingham 1751. It was described by Deering, who had financial assistance from John Plumptre, in his 1750 history of Nottingham as exhibiting Italian taste on the exterior but English taste inside. Plumptre House was the first recorded instance of an architect of national standing being employed on a private building in Nottingham. Plumptre House was a Georgian mansion in Stoney Street, next to St. Mary’s Church, built in 1707 it was re-designed by Colen Campbell, (15 June 1676 – 13 September 1729) a pioneering Scottish architect and architectural writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style who spent most of his career in Italy and England, for the local M.P. John Plumptre, somewhere between 1723 and 1734. Campbell enlarged it into a Palladian mansion facing east, rebuilding the east wing of the earlier ‘H’ shaped house and adding a new three-and-a-half storey front facing Stoney Street which necessitated the demolition of adjacent property to form a walled forecourt.

Plumptre House in Nottingham. The first John Plumptre of Fredville was the last member of the family to reside at Plumptre House and died at his London residence in 1791 at the age of 80. An advertisement in the Nottingham Journal for 2nd April 1803, announcing that Plumptre House was to be sold, described it as ‘A Capital Messuage, in Stoney Street in the Town of Nottingham, (now divided into two Houses) , with the coach-houses, warehouse, stables, buildings, yards, and garden; containing in the whole, 3,903 square yards, in the occupation of Mr. Davison and Mr Williams.’

The old Plumptre Hospital in Plumptre Square, Nottingham. Inscription on the building reads: PLUMPTRE HOSPITAL Founded and endowed for the support of a Master, a priest, and thirteen poor Widows, By John de Plumptre, A.D. 1392. Repaired by Huntingdon Plumptre, Esq., 1650 By John Plumptre, Esq., A.D. 1751 By John Plumptre, his son, A.D. 1753. First stone of the present Hospital was laid on the 1st of August, A.D. 1823, By the Rev. Charles Thomas Plumptre, Rector of Claypole, In Lincolnshire, on behalf of his father, John Plumptre, of Fredville, In the county of Ken, Esq., the Master or Guardian of the said Hospital, And a descendant of the Founder.

This print of “Fredville in Kent – The Seat of John Plumptre Esq.”, is from “The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent” by William Hasted circa 1800, and shows Fredville House and the Majesty Oak. A ring of people, probably servants, encircles the Oak to possibly measure its girth for the mounted observers.

An 1838 lithographic engraving of Fredville from:  An Epitome of County History Wherein the Most Remarkable Objects, Persons, and Events, Are Briefly Treated Of; The Seats, Residences, Etc. Of the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry; County of Kent by C. Greenwood. Published for the Proprietor, at the Office of the Author in London 1838

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