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From prehistoric times the site at Belwood is said to of been used and
occupied by Druids. The oak trees in the area being used for pagan festivals and
practices.
The Doomesday survey of 1086 mentions a John de Belwood as one of the
people swearing an oath to a Commissioner of William the Conqueror as to the assessment of
lands at "Beltone".
In 1144, in the reign of King Stephen, Roger de Mowbray gave a
"cow pasture at Belwode" (Belwood) to the Knight Templars, of Balsall,
Warwickshire.
In 1327 King Edward III gave the Templars permission to build and run
a Monastic Institution, this becoming Temple Belwood. The Templars were lawyers and
because they taught law and politics to the young monks rather than religious study the
Temple was taken from them in around 1500. It was given to their rivals the Knight
Hospitalers who taught religion and medicine. The Hospitalers built a chapel 500 yards to
the east of the Temple in about 1530. The chapel being converted from a farmhouse.
After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 the Temple and the
lands at Belwood were given to Henry Vavasour in right of his marriage to Isobel Brownlow.
After his death it remained in the family for four generations eventually being owned by
Thomas Vavasour. Thomas Vavasour had the title "The Solicitor" because he had
petitioned King Charles I to stop Cornelius Vermuyden from draining Hatfield Chase, a very
large area that included the Isle of Axholme. In 1627 Vermuyden had asked the King if he
could drain the vast expanse of Hatfield Chase, it was this huge cost of trying to stop
the drainage work that financially ruined Vavasour.
The house was bought by Robert Ryther who's descendant John Ryther
died leaving it to his daughter Catherine and her husband Richard Popplewell. It then past
on their deaths to their son Richard and on, in 1752, to his daughters one of which was
married to Robert Steer, the other Katherine, was married to Alan Johnson.
After the death of Alan Johnson Temple Belwood was rebuilt and
extended with east and west wings and a new north front being added by his son, William Johnson, in 1787. A 30 feet high obelisk was built in the
park as a memorial to the Squires favourite horse, Sir Solomon, that broke a leg while
hunting. So aggrieved was the Squire he shot his best two hounds and buried them either
side of the horse. Through local knowledge the burial site is not at the obelisk, as some
believe, but in the Dog and Horse Plantation to the north east of the house.
William's son, William Popplewell Bellingham Johnson, was next in line but
died childless in 1831 leaving the house to Robert Popplewell Steer, the great grandson of
Robert Steer. Robert dropped the name Steer and took the name Johnson and in 1865
renovated the house at a cost of £30,000. Robert never married and died in 1871 leaving
the house to his nephew, John William Dene Hilton , who also changed his name to Johnson.
John modernized the house in 1880 at a cost of £16,000.
In 1897 the house was put up for auction following the death of John, the auction was
held at the Angel Hotel, Doncaster, at 3 o'clock on the 13th July 1897. The auctioneers,
Messrs Osbourne & Mercer, offered 25 lots including the mansion in its own 200 acre
grounds and all the other smallholdings, homesteads and accommodation lands
totalling
2,113 acres in all. The 25 lots were bought by Mr. Thomas Wilkinson Esq. of Upperwood Hall,
Darfield, Yorkshire.
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