The Hotchkin Family and the Manor House in Woodhall Spa

The Hotchkin family sit right at the centre of Woodhall Spa’s origin story. In the early 1800s, “medicinal” water found escaping from a disused coal-search shaft began attracting attention locally. The Lord of the Manor, Thomas Hotchkin, responded by building a small bathhouse, then a hotel, creating what became the famous iodine spa. For around half a century from the late 1830s, the Hotchkins maintained, developed and modernised the baths and hotel as Woodhall Spa grew in popularity.

Their family home in the village is the building that later became widely known as the Old Manor / Manor House. Lincolnshire’s Historic Environment Record describes it as a red-brick house (shown as “The Lodge” on an 1889 map), set in substantial gardens behind an attractive brick wall, and specifically notes it was the home of the Hotchkin family who founded the Spa Baths. Historic mapping also records a park associated with the house in the late 19th and early 20th century.

By the early 20th century, the family’s influence extended beyond the spa into sport. Woodhall Spa’s internationally regarded golf heritage was shaped in the 1920s when Colonel S. V. Hotchkin helped redesign the course that now bears his name.

The Manor House itself is generally described as Georgian in origin with significant Edwardian character, and it remained in Hotchkin hands from the early 1800s until 1965.

Today, the same historic house is known as Woodhall Spa Manor and operates as an events and weddings venue—an interesting modern chapter for a property so closely tied to the village’s beginnings.