Aldby Park is a country estate in the village of

Buttercrambe Buttercrambe is a small village in the Buttercrambe with Bossall civil parish, in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. The village is situated approximately to the north-east of York and on the border with the East Riding of Yorks ...

near the village of Stamford Bridge in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The house, replacing the original Tudor one, was built around 1725 by Jane Darley but it occupies an ancient site believed to be where

Edwin of Northumbria Edwin ( ang, Ēadwine; c. 586 – 12 October 632/633), also known as Eadwine or Æduinus, was the List of monarchs of Northumbria, King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until hi ...

was crowned King in 625 AD. Aldby Park is best known as being the ancestral home of the Darley family. This family's best known member is

Thomas Darley Thomas Darley (born 19 May 1664) served as Her Majesty's Consul to the Levant ( Syria) during the reign of Queen Anne. He is famous for having bought an Arabian colt that became an important part of the history of the Thoroughbred breed. Darley ...

, brother of Jane Darley, who owned the celebrated

Darley Arabian The Darley Arabian (foaled c. 1700) was one of three dominant foundation sires of modern Thoroughbred horse racing bloodstock. The other two founders were the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerley Turk. This bay Arabian horse was bought in Alep ...

horse which is widely recognised as being the earliest ancestor of most of the world's

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

race horses. Most recently, it has been the home of Mark Winn, grandson of

Rowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald Rowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald (19 February 1820 – 19 January 1893) was an English industrialist and Conservative Party politician. He was instrumental in promoting and developing the ironstone ore fields in North Lincolnshire leading to the ...

, and his son, George Winn-Darley. The three storey house is built of brick with ashlar dressing and a slate roof, with a nine bay frontage.

History

William Darley had bought Buttercrambe manor in 1557. Sir Richard Darley's son and heir, Henry Darley, was elected MP for Malton in 1645. It was Henry Darley's son Richard who asked his own son

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

to send the Darley Arabian from Aleppo, where Thomas was a merchant. Richard died in 1706 and was succeeded by another son Henry, on whose death in 1720 the estate passed to his sister Jane, all her other brothers having also died. Jane had married John Brewster, who changed his name to Brewster-Darley and built the present house around 1725. Their grandson Henry Darley died in 1810. Henry's son Henry (1777–1846) was a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and

High Sheriff of Yorkshire The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere ...

in 1827. His son, Henry Brewster (1809–1860) and the latter's son, yet another Henry (1839–1904) also served as Tory justices. Cecil Geoffrey Darley of Aldby Hall was born in 1885. The house was requisitioned by the army during the Second World War and suffered severely, but was renovated after the war by Mark Winn. He passed it on to his son George whilst continuing to live there. In 1999 the house suffered a serious fire.

References

External links

Some details
* {{coord, 54.01735, N, 0.88738, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SE730585), display=title Country houses in North Yorkshire