Barton Hall Hotel in Barton Seagrave near Kettering is a building of historical significance and is listed on the English Heritage Register. [1] It was built in about 1550 and was the home of many notable residents over the next five centuries. Today it is a hotel which provides accommodation, restaurant facilities and caters for special events.
The original house was built in about 1550 by the Humphrey family. At this time the owner of the property would have been William Humphrey (died 1591) and his wife Jane Lynne. [2] They inherited the manor in 1553. He also owned land in Swepstone and the church there contains his tomb with his effigy dressed as a knight which is shown. Barton Hall passed down through the Humphrey family until 1665 when Nathaniel Humphrey sold it to John Bridges.
John Bridges (1642-1712) was the father of the famous historian John Bridges (1666-1724). He married Elizabeth Trumball who was the sister of Sir William Trumball, secretary of state. The couple had twelve children of whom John was the eldest and Charles Bridges, the notable painter the youngest. When he died in 1712 his eldest son John Bridges (1666-1724) inherited Barton Hall.
John Bridges (1666-1724) was a famous historian. [3] He published the well known book called “The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire” He personally made a circuit of the county and employed several people to make drawings, collect information, and transcribe monuments and records. When he died in 1724 he left the property to his nephew John Bridges (1706-1741) who was the son of William Bridges. In 1733 he married Margaretta Horton who was his cousin. The couple had no children so when John died in 1741 [4] he left Barton Hall to Margaretta and after her death to his relatives.
By 1749 the house had been sold by the Bridges family to Joseph Wilcocks (1673-1756), Bishop of Rochester. [5] He used the property as his summer residence and entertained several notable people. When he died in 1756 his son Joseph Wilcocks (1724-1791) inherited the house. He lived there for some time before moving to Ladye Place in Berkshire. [6] He did not marry and after he died in 1791 the property was sold. The advertisement for the sale is shown.
Charles Tibbits (1764-1830) bought the house in 1791 at the time of his marriage to Mary Woodyeare (1763-1840). Charles was the son of Richard Tibbits (1771-1813) of Flecknoe and Wolfhamcote. Mary was the daughter of John Woodyeare of Crookhill. [7] In 1793 Charles asked the famous landscaper Humphry Repton to redesign the garden close to the Hall. Repton compiled a Red Book which outlines his proposals. [8]
Charles had one son Richard John Tibbits (1794-1821) but unfortunately he died at the age of only 27 leaving his wife Horatia Charlotte Lockwood (1797-1838) and only child Mary Isabella Tibbits (1818-1904) who was then three years old. As he predeceased his father, Barton Hall was left to his daughter Mary when Charles died in 1830. She owned the Hall for the next 74 years.
Mary married in 1837 Viscount Samuel Hood and she became Viscountess Hood. She kept this name until the end of her life even though she married twice more after Samuel died in 1846. [9] The couple had four sons and one daughter.
In 1849 three years after Samuel’s death Viscountess Hood married George Hall (1801-1854) who was a doctor. She married thirdly John Borlasse Maunsell in 1858, a retired army officer who changed his surname to Tibbits by Royal Licence that same year.
When Mary died in 1904 her eldest son Francis Wheler Hood 4th Viscount Hood (1838-1907) inherited the estate and when he died in 1907 his son Grosvenor Arthur Frederick Hood 5th Viscount Hood (1868-1933) became the owner. In 1911 he decided to sell the whole estate which at that time was 1800 acres. The sale notice is shown.
It seems that at about this time the property was split. Charles Wicksteed bought a portion in 1913, Viscount Hood kept some of the farms and land and George Edward Stringer bought the Hall with about 65 acres.
George Edward Stringer (1853-1937) was a very wealthy colliery owner. [10] In 1882 he married Edith Emily Harrison (1853-1922). Shortly after she died in 1922 George put Barton Hall on the market. [11] In 1928 Charles Wicksteed bought the house and added it to his previously established Wicksteed Village Trust. [12]
Under the Trust the Hall was used as hotel and event venue. In 1949 it became a nursing home for the elderly. [13] In 2012 it was purchased from the Trust and converted back to a hotel. [14] It serves this function today.
Humphry Repton was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of the 19th century. His first name is often incorrectly rendered "Humphrey".
Viscount Hood, of Whitley in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for the famous naval commander Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Baron Hood. He had already been created a Baronet, of Catherington, in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 20 May 1778, and Baron Hood, of Catherington in the County of Southampton, in the Peerage of Ireland in 1782.
Wicksteed Park is a Grade II listed park in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, which includes an amusement park within its grounds. The park is located in the south-east of Kettering, on the western edge of Barton Seagrave village. The park is owned by the Wicksteed Charitable Trust, with the amusement park being run by its trading subsidiary company Wicksteed Park Ltd.
Barton Seagrave is a large village and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire, England. The village is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-east of Kettering, town centre. The older part of the village is known for its Norman Church and attractive buildings.
Prideaux Place is a grade I listed Elizabethan country house in the parish of Padstow, Cornwall, England. It has been the home of the Prideaux family for over 400 years. The house was built in 1592 by Sir Nicholas Prideaux (1550–1627), a distinguished lawyer, and was enlarged and modified by successive generations, most notably by his great-great-grandson Edmund Prideaux (1693–1745) and by the latter's grandson Rev. Charles Prideaux-Brune (1760–1833). The present building, containing 81 rooms, combines the traditional E-shape of Elizabethan architecture with the 18th-century exuberance of Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Gothic.
John Thomas Townshend, 2nd Viscount Sydney of St Leonards was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
Sutton Scarsdale Hall is a Grade I listed Georgian ruined stately home in Sutton Scarsdale, just outside Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone was an English politician, known as Sir Jacob Bouverie, 3rd Baronet from 1737 to 1747.
Edward St Vincent Digby, 9th Baron Digby, also 3rd Baron Digby in the Peerage of Great Britain, was a British peer.
Sir William Trumbull was an English statesman who held high office as a member of the First Whig Junto.
Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 2nd Baronet was a prominent English Catholic. Born at Croston Hall near Chorley, Lancashire on 1 May 1808, he was the fourth child and the eldest son of Sir Thomas de Trafford.
Orchardleigh is a country estate in Somerset, approximately two miles north of Frome, and on the southern edge of the village of Lullington. The privately held estate comprises a Victorian country house, the Orchardleigh Lake with its island church, and an 18-hole golf course.
Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden was an English politician. He was Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, Custos Rotulorum of Rutland and the Member of Parliament for Rutland.
John Bridges (1666–1724) was an English lawyer, antiquarian and topographer.
Henley Hall is a building of historical significance and is listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built in about 1610 by the Powys family and then substantially changed in 1772. Additions were again made in the late 19th century. It is a generally a three-storey building in brick with a slate roof. Flanking wings were added at both ends of the original linear building c. 1772 and further major extensions carried out in 1875 and 1907. The hall is surrounded by landscaped and formal gardens covering some 60 hectares. The hall itself is listed grade II* and the orangery, outbuildings, dovecote and Bitterley main gate are listed Grade II. It is situated 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northeast of Ludlow town centre, just off the A4117 road to Cleobury Mortimer. The Ledwyche Brook flows by the estate.
Sandywell Park is an Jacobean Georgian manor house, five miles east of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England. Built in 1704 by Henry Brett, it was extended a few times over the 18th century. In the mid-eighteenth century the Sandywell Park estate acquired the Whittington Court building. Sandywell Park is today a Grade II listed building.
Henry Ingram (1640–1666) was the first to hold the title Lord Ingram, and Viscount Irvine, in the Peerage of Scotland, which in English sources is usually written Viscount Irwin. The Viscountcy existed in four generations of his family before becoming extinct: the seat was at Temple Newsam near Leeds, in Yorkshire.
Pipewell Hall in Northamptonshire, England, is a building of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register. It was built near the ruins of a Cistercian abbey in 1675. At this time it was owned by the Barons of Powis. The house was constructed from the stones of the abbey. The Hall was the home of many notable people over the next three centuries and is now a wedding venue.
Charles Wicksteed (1847–1931) was a British engineer, businessman, and entrepreneur. He is best known as a manufacturer of playground equipment and as the founder of Wicksteed Park.
Henry Hood, 2nd Viscount Hood (1753–1836) was an English peer. He is known for his relationship with Caroline of Brunswick.
