2-324-104 - www.picturethepast.org.uk/Nottingham City Council /Heritage Images

Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, 1791. View of the north-west front and entrance. Sir Francis Willoughby began to build his new hall at Wollaton in 1580, and it was eight years before it was completed. Much of the money for its construction derived from the wealth acquired by the Willoughbys from early coal mining in the area. The stone was brought from Ancaster in exchange for coal, and the total cost of the building reached about £8000. The Willoughby family did not recover from the expense for two generations. Robert Smythson, who had previously worked at Longleat and ten years later was to design Hardwick Hall, was the 'architector and surveyor'. The Hall was designed for show rather than comfort. The Elizabethans were fascinated by pattern and symmetry and the design shows both of these, reflecting ideals of the late Renaissance period.