Early in 1903 Messrs Morris and Place, Estate Agents and Auctioneers of 25 and 27 Bridlesmith Gate advertised the forthcoming sale by auction of the Mapperley Park Estate. This was strictly the surviving or northern part of the estate, which included Mapperley Hall. This sale had been forced on the Wright family, owner of the estate, by the result of an action brought against them by Capital and Counties Bank Limited in the Chancery Division of the High Court.
A typical advertisement appeared in the Nottingham Daily Express on 14 March 1903, which in addition to a list of the estates assets, informed “The Estate …its easy adaptability for immediately cutting up into building lots or for purchase by a public body or philanthropist for a public park offers such advantages that no other property in this area could be placed on the market to compete with it.”
The sale of the estate took place from 3.30 p.m. on Friday 20 March 1903. The bidding started at £60,000, which was followed rapidly by increases of £1,000 to £70,000 then more slowly with advances of £500 until “at £74,000 the hammer fell and the estate passed into the hands of Mr. S.P. Derbyshire of Derbyshire Brothers chartered accountants.”
Samuel Patrick Derbyshire was acting for a syndicate comprising himself, his brother Job Nightingale Derbyshire and John Ashworth. To this trio was soon added William Beedham Starr, a prominent local architect and surveyor. Starr was an excellent man to have in this development partnership for besides his architectural talents, he had surveyed the estate for the sale catalogue and associated documents and indeed was then currently involved in work on the edge of the southern part of the estate.
On the following day the writer of the Comment column of the Nottingham Daily
Express made a very perceptive observation.
“On the whole I should say the purchasers of the Mapperley Park Estate
yesterday afternoon got a bargain, the purchase price being £74,500
being about 2s.6d. (=12.5p) a yard.”
Ken Brand
September 2003
The Morris and Place auction rooms in Bridlesmith Gate are currently occupied
by Hobbs fashion store. Other than the insertion of a shop front much of the
building remains unaltered.
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