Page 13 - Oundle Life July 2024

KNYVETT
PLACE?
Southwick Hall
Few buildings stand for over 700 years without having stories to tell, and Southwick Hall is no exception.
Built in the 14th Century by the Knyvett family, who had made their wealth as wool merchants, the manor house stands just
three miles north of Oundle and has been significantly added to over the centuries. It now boasts impressive medieval, Tudor, Elizabethan, Stuart, Georgian, and Victorian architecture, all seamlessly blended thanks to the continued use of local stone from Collyweston and Weldon. Despite all the improvements, the Hall retains its original medieval layout.
The Knyvetts had lived in Southwick since
at least 1194 – over a hundred years before the Hall was built on the site of “Knyvetts’ Place”. The most prominent member of the family, Sir John, served as Chief Justice of the King’s Bench and Lord Chancellor to Edward III from 1372.
In 1442, having fallen on hard times with the Hundred Years’ War, the Knyvetts ceded the property to a prosperous family: the Lynnes.
Amongst their number they boasted lawyers and scientists, but perhaps most interesting was George Lynne, a recusant Catholic involved in the execution of Mary Queen of Scots at nearby Fotheringhay Castle. There is great speculation that Mary’s original death warrant – signed by her own cousin, Elizabeth I, and never found – is secreted within the walls of Southwick Hall. A standard bearer at Mary’s funeral and a protégé of William Cecil (Lord Burghley), Lynne
later became MP for Stamford, presumably disguising his Faith to achieve this.
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