Honington Hall is a privately owned 17th century
country house at
Honington, near
Stratford on Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
. It has
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
status.
The Manor of Honington was in the ownership of the Priory of Coventry until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. In 1540 it was granted by the Crown to Robert Gibbes. The estate was sold by the Gibbes family in about 1670 to Henry Parker who in 1696 succeeded to the
Parker Baronetcy and an estate at
Melford Hall
Melford Hall is a stately home in the village of Long Melford, Suffolk, England. Since 1786 it has been the seat of the Parker Baronets and is still lived in by the Hyde Parker family. Since 1960 it has been owned by the National Trust.
The ha ...
,
Suffolk.
The present house was built by Parker in 1682 but was sold by Parker's grandson in 1737 to
Joseph Townsend who carried out considerable alterations and extensions in the mid 18th century. The
Georgian style
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Geor ...
house has a number of fine features including round headed niches over the ground floor windows of the east front which contain
busts of
Roman Emperors.
The Townsends held the estate until 1905 when it passed by marriage to Sir Grey Skipwith Bt ( see
Skipwith baronets
There have been three baronetcies created in the Baronetage of England for members of the Skipwith family of Skipwith, Yorkshire, which relocated to Lincolnshire in the 14th century. They were a successful court family, with one member, Margaret ...
). Later the estate became the seat of the
Wiggin family.
The house is not generally open to the public but may be available for visitations by prior group arrangements.
References and sources
;References
;Sources
''A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 5'' (1949)pp92-95 from British History Online Historic Houses Association photograph
{{coord, 52.0820, -1.6206, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Houses completed in 1682
Grade I listed buildings in Warwickshire
Grade I listed houses
Country houses in Warwickshire
1682 establishments in England