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Risley is now a village with some 656 inhabitants, steeped in history...yet still has no village store, or even a post office. The only pub, once known as The Ffych Arms after a past owner of the Hall, later changed to the Blue Bull, after being demolished and rebuilt as a road house before the Second World War.
Once on the busy Derby-Nottingham road, but now happily by-passed, it has fine trees and old buildings rich in memories of the Willoughbys who came here in the 14th century and are buried at Wilne two miles away.
The great house built on the site of their old home has disappeared, except for a gateway on a terrace and the long stone wall enclosing the grounds, brought from the ruins of Dale Abbey.
The church a rare example of an Elizabethan church, was built by Michael Willoughby in 1593 as a chapel for his house; the delightful schools and schoolhouses close by, founded by him and his family, were rebuilt in the early 18th century. By the church porch is part of an old canopied niche from Dale Abbey, turned upside down and used as a flower vase.
It was the Willoughbys who lived at Risley Hall. A descendant of theirs Elizabeth Grey built or endowed four other buildings of interest in the area...the Latin and English schoolhouses and the Latin school and English school.
There were originally two manors in Risley at the time of the Domesday survey, one held by a Kings Thegn, and another held from Roger de Builli by Fulk de Lusoriis.
The manor had a chequered history, passing through the Chaddesdens, the Hollands (Dukes of Kent) the Crown, and the Babbingtons of Chilwell to the Lords Sheffield. In due course it came into the ownership of Sir Richard of Willoughby, who became Lord Chief Justice of England. In later years the estate came into the hands of the Astor family, and by 1790 it was the Hancock family who were the incumbents.
Possibly the most colourful owner of Risley had had to be a certain Ernest Terah Hooley at the latter end of the 1800s. It was said of him 'that no man ever gained an enviable reputation in so brief a period' as he. From business apartments in the Midland Grand Hotel, he launched the Pneumatic Tyre Company for an unprecedented five million pounds. When Jesse Boot (of Boots the Chemists fame) was struggling to turn his business of chemicals into a company it was Hooley who came forward with the loan. Raleigh Cycles, Dunlop Tyre Company, Bovril, and Scweppes were amonst the famous names which brough Hooley a clear profit of £7 million by 1898.
It was in 1890 that he purchased Risley Hall for a price of £5,000, and it was he that converted the west front, converted the north stable range into the Baronial Hall and landscaped the gardens. However, just as it seemed his luck would never cease, Ernest Terah Hooley crashed, with a fall as dramatic as his rise. With liabilities of £1.5 million when Edward VII took the throne in 1901, Hooley lost fortune and royal favour. Somehow though he managed to retain Risley Hall, but rumours of shady dealing resulted in a 1904 court case.
By 1912 though he was in deep trouble when he was charged with obtaining £2,000 by false pretences and started a year long prison sentence. He returned to prison yet again in 1922. Lack of money forced him out of Risley Hall for a boarding house. In 1939 at the age of 80 he made his last appearance in Derby Bankruptcy Court. His liabilities were £898...assets nil. He died in 1947.
For a short period Risley Hall was under the ownership of Nottinghamshire County Council, where for a while it was run as an approved school for boys, after which it was a private nursing home for the elderly. These days, it could be said to have returned to its former glory by the opening of the Risley Hall Hotel.... luxury hotel offering all the comforts that one could wish for.
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