The sale of Clints Hall: 1840/1

The adverts in newspapers at the time for the sale of Clints Hall make interesting reading. The owners sold the furniture, carpets, books and a substantial quantity of tools. Notable also is the sale of a full sized billiard table, a grand piano, the equipment needed for a substantial home-brewing enterprise, and the sale of 64 dozen bottles of wine and port!

Advert in Yorkshire Gazette. Text transcribed from original – sourced from British Newspaper Archives1.

Once the contents had been the Hall itself was put on the market. Today’s estate agents have perhaps lost some of the floweriness of language that their forebears exhibited. The advert frames the surroundings to the Hall in the most complimentary terms, describing it as “the Bijou of the North Riding”, and noting that those “who have rambled amongst the Alps, the Appenines, and the Pyrenees, have declared that a Spot of the same extent more favoured for beautiful Scenery never presented itself to their inquiring eyes”. There are financial upsides as well – “a spirited Adventurer” might be able to mine lead ores in a short term that exceed the asking price for the whole estate. Caveat Emptor applied in 1840 as much as it does today. Finally and intriguingly, whilst the Errington family who sold the Hall were catholics, the estate owned a large family pew and nine smaller ones in the parish church (roughly one third of the church pews).

Advert in Yorkshire Gazette. Text transcribed from original – sourced from British Newspaper Archives2.
  1. Yorkshire Gazette.  12 Sep 1840.  Clints and Hall, near Richmond, Yorkshire, to be sold by auction.  Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website).[↩]
  2. Yorkshire Gazette.  18 Sep 1841.  Clints and Hall, near Richmond, Yorkshire, to be sold by auction.  Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website).[↩]