Wheatley Hall, Doncaster: The Yorkshire manor house which was witness to wild Suffragette scenes

A large crowd assembled, and immediately there was hostility. As soon as Miss Key Jones, the local secretary, Miss Wylie, and others of the party appeared, a shout was heard and a rush was made for them.

One woman managed to speak several sentences, but she was glad to get off her stand and was chased into a shop. The police had their work cut out to see that no harm was done.

Inside the shop, the woman was kept a prisoner by the big crowd outside. Other women were chased in opposite directions, to the sound of much jeering and booing.

It was alleged that this incident might have been the reason for an attack by Suffragettes at Wheatley Hall on Saturday May 25.

During the evening, a boy, whilst walking in the grounds, noticed that a window in the front of the hall was broken and the agents of the estate were informed.

A search was made, and it was revealed a bomb, which, with a quantity of Suffragette literature, was found under the fine oak staircase. The literature had been soaked in paraffin. The clumsily made bomb was removed by the police.

A report mentioned: ‘It is believed that the attempt is really the work of Suffragettes, as two members of the local Women’s Union are said to have been seen in the grounds. The mansion was untenanted, and there was no caretaker, so that the premises could be entered with little fear of disturbance.’

It was added that the estate formerly belonged to Sir William Cooke Bart but ‘the present baronet had not lived there for several years…’

Then, on Tuesday June 3, 1913 at 12.30 am, Harry Johnson, aged 19 calling himself a journalist, and a well-known Suffragette, Lilian Lenton, 22, were at Westfield House, Doncaster.

They had with them a large can containing paraffin, a quantity of cotton wool, and a number of firelighters. A caretaker, a woman of 72, was woken and meeting them on the staircase she asked them their names.

They replied: ‘We are Suffragettes, we thought the house was empty.’

They went away, and the can of paraffin was left concealed in the shrubbery. At the time Westfield House belonged to a widow, Mrs Alice Fisher, who was abroad.

Previously and just after her 21st birthday, Lenton had taken part in the mass window-smashing raid in the West End and Westminster on March 1, 1912.

She was suspected for burning down the tea pavilion at Kew Gardens, Surrey early in 1913 and was imprisoned. On hunger strike, she was released under the Cat and Mouse Act and went on the run, before arriving in Doncaster.

Both Johnson and Lenton were eventually arrested and charged with being on enclosed premises (Westfield House) for an unlawful purpose, namely to set fire to the house. Harry Johnson was later sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour.

Whilst on remand at Armley, Lenton was released, ‘owing to a hunger strike and slipped through the detectives guarding the house to which she was removed in the guise of a grocer’s boy’.

She was not recaptured until months later but her imprisonment and release cycle continued. Lenton died in 1972.

According to a local historian Dr Miller, Wheatley Hall was built by Sir Henry Cooke Bart, ‘about the year 1680. The architecture is similar to the buildings of that period which display a heavy weight of stone with a profusion of windows.’

The Cookes had enjoyed a long and honourable connection with Doncaster. Edward Cooke was mayor in 1504, and during the four successive years. Sir W. Bryan Cooke, Bart, was the first Mayor under the Municipal Act of 1836. Wheatley Hall farm stood adjacent to the main house.

During May 1915, an article revealed that Wheatley Hall, the residence of Sir William Cooke, Bart was taken over by a syndicate about 12 months earlier.

But, as they had been unable to complete the purchase, the hall which stood in a well wooded park had again reverted to Sir William. The park had been laid out as a 28-hole golf course, under the supervision of Dr Mackenzie, of Leeds, the well-known golf architect.

Yet, there was some doubt as to whether the scheme could be carried out now that the estate had come again into Sir William’s hands.

These doubts were dispelled at the first annual meeting of the Wheatley Park Golf Club when Sir William’s solicitors reported he had said: ‘I can’t carry on this golf club, I am too busy. If [members of the club] are prepared to look after it for me, I am quite willing to leave it in your hands.’

Sir William had moved to Wyld Court, Hampstead Norris in Berkshire.

Furniture formerly at Wheatley Hall that was surplus to his requirements was sold by J.J. Greaves & Sons at the Mart, Aldine Court, Sheffield in January 1920. There was a large attendance with bidders coming from places such as Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.

In subsequent years, portions of the Wheatley estate were sold for a number of purposes. Ready to establish an artificial silk factory on part of an area towards the end of 1928 was British Bemberg Ltd.

This was welcomed as it would introduce to the area an entirely new industry and find employment for over 1,000 hands, two thirds of which would be women and girls.

By 1932 Doncaster Corporation had purchased a portion of the Wheatley estate – earmarked for industrial purposes – and Wheatley Hall the headquarters of the Wheatley Golf Club, which eventually moved to Armthorpe.

An article from July 9, 1936 states that Doncaster Fire Brigade was called on the previous night to rescue Denis Swaby, aged 16, who was on the top of the 60ft high Wheatley Hall which was ‘in the process of demolition.’ The boy had climbed to the top of the building but his retreat had been cut off by fallen masonry.

The splendid Jacobean staircase, reputed to be the work of Grinling Gibbon (1648-1720), and almost destroyed by the Suffragist bomb, was saved.

It was bought by Sir Paul Latham and, after careful restoration, installed in Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex, which was acquired in 1946 for use as the Royal Observatory.

The International Harvester Club of Great Britain website states that the Doncaster factory at Wheatley Hall was purchased from Doncaster Corporation in the 1930s but operations were thwarted by the war. International Harvesters started to produce items after the cessation of hostilities.

In recent years both the above factories, which underwent a number of ownership changes, have gone from the Wheatley estate and further development has taken place.

Westfield House, on the west side of Doncaster, dated from at least the 1820s. For many years it was the residence of Frederick Fisher, Doncaster’s Town Clerk from 1824 to 1835 and afterwards his son, F. Fisher, Clerk to the Borough Magistrates who died aged 72 from pneumonia in 1892.

His widow survived him for many years, and died at Westfield House in November 1926. She was 87, and the daughter of Dr Dunn, who once had a homoeopathic Hospital in Doncaster.

In July 1931, negotiations for the purchase by Doncaster Corporation of Westfield Park, Doncaster, were stated to be almost complete. The purchase price was about £9,000.

At a council meeting, authority had been given for the acquisition with a view to the park being developed and preserved for public use.

The house however was demolished.