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After buying Temple Belwood Thomas Wilkinson,
and the trustees after his death in 1908, rented the house out to many different people.
Taken from several business directories the
tenants of the house changed every few years.
From about 1900 a boarding establishment had
been opened at Temple Belwood by Mr. Timothy Kynnaird Newburgh Radcliff. Through
lack of trade a brochure was published in around
1905 to advertise its grandeur and
splendour, but this did not bring in enough guests to make the venture viable.
In December 1906 with mounting debt a meeting was held in Sheffield at the
official receiver's office to discus the affairs of Mr. Radcliff. Debts owed to
unsecured creditors stood at £1,678 19s 7d; for rent and taxes £67 10s 7d; and
for wages £23 18s. As assets were only at £229 5s this meant that Radcliff was
in debt to the sum of £1,471 3s 2d and Mr. A. H. Brock of Doncaster was
appointed at the meeting as trustee to wind up Radcliff's business.
By 1909 Mr. Thomas Johnson, no relative to the
previous owners, ran a "High Class Boarding Establishment" and by 1913 it was a
boarding house run by a Mrs. Eliza Southern.
During the Great War (1914/18) the house
became a hostel for borstal boys who were used to work the land on the farms. It was after
the war when most of the estate was sold off to its tenant farmers with the house being
sold along with a small piece of land to a group of London speculators called
Hooley’s Syndicate. This land deal fell through when Terah Hooley, head of the
syndicate, was put in prison. After this the trustees rented the house to Mr. &
Mrs. McNamee who opened St. Paul's College a boarding and day school for boys. The college was a
success but after her husbands death Mrs. McNamee gave it up in 1925.
In 1932, after damage was caused to the house,
a caretaker was appointed and a fee of 3d was charged to all visitors. The caretaker,
Mr. J. G. Rees wrote and published a booklet in 1933 called "Temple
Belwood - It's Past and Present".
Between then and World War II the lead from
the roofs was taken and over the next few years the house fell into ruins. The two
castellated gatehouses were demolished in the 1960‘s but the walled garden is still
there.
Temple Belwood finally disappeared under the
new M180 motorway in the late 1970‘s along with the ruins of the Belwood farmhouse, a
building, that had been used in twelfth century as a farmhouse, been converted into a
chapel in 1530 by the Knights Hospitalers and then reverted back to a farmhouse after the
dissolution.
A carved stone Maltese cross from the old building was saved
by Mrs. Eileen Adcock of Temple Gardens and was built in to a wall at Belton Primary
School, also two sections of stone pillar from Temple Belwood were salvaged by Belton
Parish Council and erected in the churchyard.
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