The history of this house, which has been reconstructed several times, is mysterious; in the absence of almost all documentary reference, it has to be read from the fabric of the house itself.

   
It has been customary to identify the site of the medieval manor house of Holme with the present Park Farm, merely because the medieval house is said to have been surrounded by a moat and there are traces of a moat round the farmhouse. But the discovery in 1970 by Dr Eric Gee of the remains of a 16th century stone doorway in the cellar of Holme Hall indicates that there has been no change of site.
   

In 1720, in time of the 4th Baron Langdale of Holme , the architect William Wakefield was employed to design and supervise the building and supervise the building of a building of a new house evidently alongside the ‘old building’ to which extensive alterations were also planned.
   

Its roof was in such bad condition that Wakefield was afraid to remove any of the internal supporting walls. ( There is evidence of the removal of such walls in the servants hall, now the Retreat Refectory, constructed from several small rooms.
   

The first part of the new house was completed before Christmas 1722; as originally built it formed a perfect square, typical of the architecture of the period. The new building consisting of two storeys and an attic, and a three storey building adjacent on the left. The wood panelling and fireplaces in the ’Bishops Parlour’ and ’St Augustine’s date from 1720 -1722 and are closely resemble the work in the Queens Hotel, Mick legate , York. The Bishops Parlour was constructed in 1930’s from a large hall, by the addition of a new wall two pilasters being removed from the points where the new wall met the old at right angles, and placed against the new wall on the parlour side.
    

The new building on its square foundation, contained two floors of lofty rooms leading off a rectangular staircase well.; the balusters of this staircase were later reused in the alter rails of the chapel built in 1766. The present staircase in two flights, dates from 1750’s when a large part of the house was reconstructed. In May 1756 Jeremiah Hargrave, the woodcarver of Hull was working for the Hon. Marmaduke Langdale at Holme, apparently to the instructions of John Carr, the famous York architect.
To make room for the insertion of this larger staircase at least four rooms of the 1720-22 house must have been destroyed. The mark of the floor level can still be seen on the staircase wall. The great window on the staircase landing typical of Carr’s work was made in a new wall jutting out beyond the 1720 level, and a new small room was added on the ground floor (now St Kevin’s and the toilet and short corridor) with two dressing rooms or large closets above, the new wall here jutted out still further it is level with the bathroom wall across the courtyard. which suggests the date at which the old house, underwent further alterations.
To the same period, in the 1750’s, may be attributed the decorative wood carving in the Dining Room, thought by Robert Wragg, an expert on Carr, to be Carr’s work. In addition the fireplaces in St Anthony (elaborate) and St Bernard (plain dark grey marble.)
If the three storey building shown in the early drawing was reduced in the 1750’s until only the present convent wing as far as the top bathroom, survived in three stores, much further reconstruction must have been involved, including the making of the Dining Room and Kitchenette and the rooms overhead-which is consistent with the decorations-and the remodelling of the front entrance, which in the drawing is shown in a position now impossible, on the garden front.
   

The entrance on the hall side, where the porch is now, must have become the front door. In 1759 the Hon. M. Langdale was assessed for tax on 83 windows.
      

In 1766 the new chapel was built. It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist on 10th may 1766. Both the librarian of the Royal Institute of British Architect and Mr Wragg have attributed the work to Carr, judging only from a photograph. 

The chapel had a gallery for the use of the family and servants, the parishioners using the body of the chapel; this gallery was approached by a door from the staircase landing. 

The necessity of inserting a floor to the gallery at this level made it possible to have a small three storey portion of the house at this point too; served by a new, narrower staircase are two rooms on the first floor (one of  which  had a wall  removed  in the 19th century to 

enlarge the gallery; this wall was replaced later), and one room on the second floor (St Anne). The new staircase continued up to the garret which had contained the previous small chapel.

In the early 19th century the pitch of the roof was so altered as to destroy the attics above both portions of the house (1720 and 1750). These portions were then replaced with stucco and the porch as added. The narrower stairs (which now have 19th century cast iron banisters) were cut short and end in a blank wall. The lounge ceiling was redecorated c1840 and the finger plates on the doors have been dated to the same period. Late in the 19th century the Billiards Room was added; painted glass in its skylight is similar to that in the chapel and in some of the windows of the house.
   

As has been seen, the three storey Convent Wing originally ended at the top bathroom. Up to this point, all the rooms have cornices and window shutters. The wing was extended to its present length in the 19th century, including the ’flat’ over the dairy; so too was the chapel wing extended as a laundry and other offices, now converted into a retreat house.
   

Two of the windows looking onto the courtyard date from 1720, but are possibly not in there original positions.
   

When the Franciscan Sisters came in 1929, they built the side chapel destroying one of the original large windows of the chapel, and removed the gallery. They lengthened the Scarcity, which had previously consisted only of the tiny room leading off the Sanctuary on the Gospel side, and made a porch to the chapel door, with a glass roof supported on two cast iron pillars that had formally supported the gallery.
   

Reconstructed by K.M Longley from documents in the East Riding Record Office, Beverley; notebook of Fr. John Fisher (transcript with K.M.L); advice from Robert Wragg, Mr Derek Sherborn, Mr H.M.Colvin and Dr Eric Gee.