Leverington Hall is a 17th-century country house in the parish of

Leverington Leverington is a village and civil parish in the Fenland District of Cambridgeshire, England. The settlement is to the north of Wisbech. At the time of the 2001 Census, the parish's population was 2,914 people, including Four Gotes, increasin ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

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 is Grade I listed and is privately owned.

History

The parish of Leverington was not mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

''. It is believed that an earlier building, Durham's Place, was on the site. Durham's Place was the property and residence of William Everard, son of Sir Lawrence Everard. The main body of the current house was built , with a crosswing added to the south end in the early 18th century. The first owner was Robert Swaine (d. 1705), son of Thomas Swaine of

Wisbech Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and only 5 miles ...

. Robert Swaine is believed to have inherited substantial wealth through the deaths of his father and brother (also Thomas Swaine), and through his marriage in 1640 to Mary Freeman, daughter of London merchant William Freeman. Swaine added considerably to the property. Leverington Hall was passed into the hands of his only surviving son, Thomas (1645-1728), a justice of the peace. A lead rainwater head, dated 1716, contains a crest and initials "T.S.E." for Thomas and Elizabeth Swaine. Leverington Hall stayed in the Swaine family until 1785, when the house and surrounding 32 acres were offered for sale at auction, and over the years it passed through several hands. In 1946, the house was sold to George Campbell Munday, who was decorated with the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

, and was still living there in the 1950s. Munday's daughter Hope married

Anthony Brooks Anthony Morris "Tony" Brooks (4 April 1922 – 19 April 2007), code name Alphonse, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to con ...

, who was highly decorated for his service in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The house went up for sale for £2,000,000 in 2022.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Country houses in Cambridgeshire Houses completed in 1630 Grade I listed buildings in Cambridgeshire Grade I listed houses 1630 establishments in England

History

See also

References