Hilton Hall is an early 17th century

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in the village of

Hilton Hilton or Hylton may refer to: Companies * Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc., a global hospitality company based in the United States that owns several hotel chains and subsidiary companies containing the Hilton name ** Hilton Hotels & Resorts, fla ...

in Cambridgeshire. The hall is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England. The dovecote in the grounds of the hall is listed Grade II.

Description

With an entrance onto the village High Street in Hilton, in the district of Huntingdonshire, the hall is a brick-built gentleman's house first built in the early 17th century. It has three storeys, and the ground plan takes the shape of a letter T. The front elevation has an 18th-century facade. The roof is tiled, with a parapet and parapet gables and with chimney stacks with recessed panels. Inside is a magnificent early 17th-century oak staircase with six flights of steps. The beams are moulded, with decorated stops, and in the hall is 18th-century panelling. A 20th-century one-storey extension to the rear of the house also has 18th-century panelling, which came from the nearby Park Farm when it was demolished.Hilton Hall, Gate Piers Forecourt Wall, Hilton
at britishlistedbuildings.co.uk, accessed 3 February 2017 Standing to the south of the main house is a fine square dovehouse with a hipped pyramid roof, believed to date from the late 17th century. An article in '' Country Life'' magazine in 2001 notes that "The original position of the windows in the 17th century is entirely lost under the mid-18th-century rearrangement, with the bizarre structural result that internally beams run into the lintels of the main windows". From the village street, the main entrance has two red brick gate piers with ball finials and wrought iron gates (dated 1845) giving onto a forecourt.

Residents

According to one account, Hilton Hall was built for Robert Walpole, gentleman, who still owned it when he died in 1699 aged one hundred.''Country Life'' magazine, Volume 195, Issues 8-13 (2001), p. 90 The house has strong connections with the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

. In 1924 it was acquired by the writer David Garnett, and he lived there until the 1960s, initially with his first wife, Ray Marshall (1891–1940), sister of Frances Partridge, and later with his second wife,

Angelica Garnett Angelica Vanessa Garnett (née Bell; 25 December 1918 – 4 May 2012), was a British writer, painter and artist. She was the author of the memoir ''Deceived with Kindness'' (1984), an account of her experience growing up at the heart of t ...

, daughter of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Frances Spalding
Angelica Garnett obituary
in '' The Guardian'' dated 7 May 2012 online, accessed 3 February 2017 In 2001 the house was still lived in by Richard Garnett, son of the writer, and his wife.

Notes

{{coord, 52.2803, -0.1092, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Bloomsbury Group locations Buildings and structures in Huntingdonshire Country houses in Cambridgeshire Dovecotes Grade II listed agricultural buildings Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridgeshire Grade II* listed houses Houses completed in the 17th century