Clinton, Henry P. F. Pelham-, 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne, 1785-1851 (succ. 1795)

When Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 3rd Duke of Newcastle under Lyne died in 1795 the Newcastle estates had only been in his hands for a year. They passed to his eldest son, Henry, 4th Duke (1785-1851) who was only ten years old. This train of events meant that the estates spent a considerable time under the control of executors and trustees, before the 4th Duke reached his majority in 1806.

For many years the Worksop Manor Estate in Nottinghamshire rested in the hands of the Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk. It had come into the family in 1606, following the marriage of Althea, daughter and heiress of the Earl of Shrewsbury to Thomas, Earl of Arundel (grandson of the 4th Duke of Norfolk). After descending through the cadet branches of the Howard family, the estate finally emerged into the senior line with the succession of Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk in 1701. For some time afterwards, Worksop Manor became the principal family seat. In 1839, however, Bernard, 12th Duke of Norfolk, sold the Worksop estates to Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne, who was consolidating his family's land holdings in Nottinghamshire.

The Duke of Newcastle's ownership of the manor lasted for little more than 50 years. In 1890 the Manor House and surrounding park land were sold to Sir John Robinson, with much of the remainder of the estate also being sold in separate lots.

Nottingham Park Estate traces its origins back to the royal park attached to the castle of Nottingham, which was built in the late eleventh century. The castle was an important royal centre in the middle ages, but was largely in ruins by the late-seventeenth century, a process accelerated by damage suffered in the civil war. After the restoration, the royalist William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, acquired the Castle and Park, and in the 1670s began an ambitious new building on Castle rock. The work of replacing the remains of the medieval castle with a ducal palace was completed after William's death by his son, Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Castle and Park remained in the hands of the Pelham-Clinton Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne, although they were more often resident at their rural estate of Clumber, Nottinghamshire, or other properties. The first serious proposals for residential development of the area came in the late 18th century during the minority of the 4th Duke of Newcastle (1785-1851). Uncertainty about the future use of the Castle was an issue, as that might have affected property values. It was not until the late 1820s that the 4th Duke took the first steps, with development of the north-east escarpment of the Park.

Meantime, other events dramatically affected the potential exploitation of the Castle. In 1831, following the failure of the Second Reform Bill in the House of Lords, the building was sacked and fired in a protest against the duke, whose reactionary views were well known. The duke made no effort to rebuild it. Under Henry P.F. Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle (1811-64), plans to develop the surrounding Park continued. The current design of the Park was laid out in the third quarter of the 19th century, with drives and crescents given names associated with the Pelham-Clinton dukes of Newcastle.

The Park continued to be owned by the Dukes of Newcastle themselves, or under various trusts, strict settlements etc., until it was finally sold by the Henry F.H. Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle (1866-1941), via Lord Nuffield, to the University of Oxford in 1939. Most of the properties in the Park were leasehold, but from the early 1950s the freeholds were sold off and some of the utilities came to be run by other bodies, so that the administration of the Park became increasingly vestigial.

In 1986 Oxford University surrendered its remaining rights in the area to the newly formed body, Nottingham Park Estate Limited. The archive represents those papers from the Newcastle Estate Office on Lenton Road that remained when the estate passed from Newcastle to Oxford in 1939, together with all those generated through the university's administration of the Park, also held in the Park Estate Office.