East Doncaster Estates Co. Ltd

WWM/E Donc

East Doncaster Estates Co. Ltd

Administration and Financial Records

Board Minutes

Board Papers

Memoranda and Articles of Association

Directors' Reports and Accounts

Annual Estate Accounts

Private Ledgers

Financial Records (journals, cash, analysis, wages books)

Rentals

Sales (files relating to)

Valuations and tenant right valuations

Miscellaneous files

Plans

Title Deeds

Childers Estate (acquisition of the Cantley Hall Estate), 1602-1858

Doncaster & Wheatley (mainly Doncaster Townfield), 1687-1896

The Cantley estate (deeds relating to the sale of the Estate to the Earl Fitzwilliam in 1904-5), 1776-1912.

Sales of land from the Estate, 1906-1966.

Copy agreements for sale.

Miscellaneous agreements.

<p>Sale plan of the Cantley Hall Estate c.1900 see SY 664/ZI/IR at Sheffield Archives</p>

English

RESTRICTED ACCESS: Closed for 50 years after the date of last entry

The East Doncaster Estates Co. Ltd. was incorporated in 1930. Of the initial 100,000 shares, the Earl Fitzwilliam held 66,666, and his nominees held the rest. The share capital was subsequently reduced in 1945/6, 1959 and 1962. William Dawson was appointed the first Agent in Dec. 1929, succeeded by W. J. Nutter in 1935. Nutter was called up during the War, with Lt. Col. Landon acting as Agent. The constitutional position of the East Doncaster Estates Co. was anomalous. The Agent had to consult with the Chief Agent at Wentworth (Lt. Col. Landon) '... on all matters of major importance and policy ...' (Board Minutes, p.4). A further complication surrounded property in Higham Ferrers and Wansford (co. Northants). These comprised only the Haycock Hotel in Wansford and a boot factory at Higham. Both were treated as part of the East Doncaster Estate. The boot factory was sold in 1935. In 1930, the decision was taken that Lt. Col. Landon, not Dawson, should be directly responsible for the two properties in Wansford and Higham, but he reported back to the Board of the East Doncaster Estates Co. From 1947, serious consideration was given to the disposal of most of the Estate. Henry Spencer & Son were called in to handle the transaction. In 1950, most of the agricultural estate was sold to Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Ltd., comprising 6963,749 acres for £170,000. In 1966, after the disposal of further property, the East Doncaster Estates Co. Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation

The estate was a rather chequered property. It comprised a core at Cantley (Cantley Hall Estate), with lands at Armthorpe, Wheatley, Auckley et al, which had been accumulated by the Childers family in the early 19th cent. Large parts were leased for sand and gravel extraction. Much of it also remained tenant farms. Forestry was gradually developed for building, especially after the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947. Building development was still being undertaken in Wheatley from 1906 through to the 1950s, both by private contractors and Doncaster Corporation

The core of the estate had been accumulated by the Childers family in the early 19th century, and passed to the Marquis of Zetland and Miss Rowlanda F.W. Childers, and became mortgaged to Earl Fitzwilliam. The Estate was sold to The Grassmmoor Co. Ltd in 1901. The Earl negotiated the purchase of the Estate from the Co. in 1903-5