car tre ad gld - 'In Hodsock Wulfsi had 2 carucates of land taxable'.

The Cressey family, who owned Hodsock from the mid-12th century for more than 200 years, were powerful enough to entertain kings of England - Henry II, John and Edward I.

[2] and Henry VIII visited him at his home Hodsock Priory in the summer of 1541 to bestow upon him his knighthood.

[4] Hodsock Priory was sold by Sir Gervase Clifton in 1765, to William and his son Charles Mellish[5] of Blyth Hall which was nearby.

Henry proved to be of similar character and by 1806 he was obliged to sell Blyth Hall to pay his gambling debts.

She commissioned the eminent architect Ambrose Poynter to add a new south wing and Italian terrace in the Gothic Revival style.

[7] Both her sons predeceased her, so on her death in 1855 the estates passed to her cousin William Leigh Mellish.

[11] The 1861 Census records the family living at the house with a butler, a footman, a valet, a lady's maid, a governess, a housekeeper, a cook, a nurse, a nursery maid, two housemaids, two laundrymaids, a kitchenmaid and a groom.

Mary moved into Hodsock Priory in 1942, selling off some of the surrounding land and house contents by auction in 1946.

During the Second World War, the flower gardens were turned over to vegetables grown by the Women's Land Army, who were accommodated in the house.

Carefully designed to blend with the landscape, the reservoir attracts wild waterfowl, including oystercatchers, great crested grebes and common shelducks.