The catalogue for the Kinoulton Estate Auction in 1919 represents a remarkable record, a snapshot of a point of time just after the First World War. The Estate boundaries ran across the present-day parishes of Kinoulton, Widmerpool and Hickling.

This copy of the catalogue (below) is part of the Wadkin archive and, fascinatingly, includes handwritten notes detailing the actual prices paid against many of the properties.

The catalogue would have originally included two plans/maps; unfortunately, these are missing from this copy but they can be found attached to the Charles Pickering copy, below.

Geoffrey Nevile (& Kinoulton Estate Auction news articles)

Kinoulton Estate Auction: Charles Pickering copy (including maps/plans)

Geoffrey Nevile

(including Kinoulton Estate Auction news articles)

Although two of Geoffrey Nevile’s brothers died during WWI, there is no indication that this was the reason behind the sale of the Kinoulton Estate in 1919. The Grantham Journal article reporting the results of the Auction notes that his main wish for the sale was that tenants should be allowed to buy the land they were living on and/or farming, even if this meant that he didn’t receive the best price:

“… the auctioneer, in his preliminary remarks, intimated that whenever the opportunity offered, the lots would be knocked down to the tenants. This course was largely followed, and was generally received with applause, in fact, the situation became quite amusing when the auctioneer, having taken a number of bids for a lot, and someone in the company called out, ‘tenant’ he would promptly bring his hammer down on the table without waiting for a further offer (…) while in regard to one lot, of which an old lady was tenant, his intimation that he and his partner wished to buy it and present it to her, met with hearty approval.”

(Grantham Journal; Saturday, July 12th 1919)

“Geoffrey Nevile was quite an agricultural pioneer and with land prices being buoyant vs the return from tenants I think he probably saw it as a good time to concentrate on his other Lincolnshire estates at Aubourn, Haddington and Wellingore. It also appears from other articles I have found that he was mostly interested in the mechanisation of arable farming and at this time the land within the Kinoulton estate would have been a dairy stronghold given the local cheese associations, as reiterated in the advert for the auction. This Farmers Weekly article also speaks along similar lines regarding the land values at the time, stating that between 1918-1922 a quarter of all land changed hands https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/how-farming-suffered-post-ww1-from-governments-great-betrayal. Obviously, it’s still only a guess though. The Nevile family still reside at Aubourn House, perhaps they might know more. This is also an interesting read detailing the history of the Nevile family: https://houseandheritage.org/2015/10/27/wellingore-hall/ “

(R Hickling 2020)

Kinoulton Estate Auction: Charles Pickering copy (including maps/plans)

This copy of the Kinoulton Estate Auction catalogue came from Charles Pickering’s granddaughter, Joanna; it includes both of the plans but it is minus one of the photographs – it appears that Charles cut out the photograph of Lot 35 which is the joiner’s shop he lived and worked in as a tenant. Charles Pickering also annotated his copy of the catalogue with prices that Lots achieved at the Auction but also with prices the same Lots were sold for at later dates.

Charles Pickering was a joiner, wheelwright and coffin maker (as was his son after him) and he was a tenant of the Kinoulton Estate until the sale in 1919. He continued as tenant after the sale under the new owner Mr T Herrick who bought the shop and surrounding land (adjoining the canal) for £2,075.

Mr Pickering was also well known to local artist Mr Arthur Lowe who lived in Kinoulton for most of his life, dying there in 1940. Arthur Lowe exhibited widely, including exhibitions at the Royal Academy in London; Charles Pickering’s family have 5 of Lowe’s paintings and it is likely that these were given to him in return for the use of his workshops for the mixing of colours for his painting.