Oakley hall
Oakley Hall is an early 18th century 14,929 sf mansion house at
Oakley,
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
, England, in the parish of
Mucklestone
Mucklestone is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Loggerheads, Staffordshire, Loggerheads, in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newcastle-under-Lyme district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is about northw ...
, near the
Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
town of
Market Drayton
Market Drayton is a market town and civil parish on the banks of the River Tern in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is located between the towns of Whitchurch, Shropshire, Wh ...
. It is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.
The Chetwode family who from about the 13th century owned the
Chetwode Manor estate in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...
also held the manor of Oakley. There was a substantial manor house at Oakley in the 16th century.
In about 1710
Sir John Chetwode, Baronet, (
High Sheriff of Staffordshire
This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire.
The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. The sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities as ...
in 1691 and 1698) replaced the old house with a two-storey mansion. The house is built of brick on a sandstone plinth with a balustraded entrance front of eleven bays, the central three of which were pedimented. Two sphinx-like statues with female heads flank the main entrance.
The 1881 census discloses the 6th Baronet and his family in residence with a staff of fifteen servants. The Chetwodes sold the estate in 1919. It was already by then in the family of Cyril Charles Dennis, High Sheriff of Staffordshire (wife Mary Scott Dennis
ee Macfie who kept 21 members of staff and was responsible for putting central heating throughout the hall. He had sons, both seriously injured before and during WW2: Ian and Lance (Spitfire V pilot) (grandsons: Honourable Professor Royal Biology Society Dr Roger L H Dennis BA, PhD, DSc (Dunelm) FLS, FRSB, FGS, FRES
nternationally recognised butterfly biologist, and who saved a boy's life in the Teign estuary in 1959 when only 10 years oldand Cyril T H Dennis Esq., BSc, BA, MA, VetMB, MRCVS (Camb)
eterinary Surgeon and Oriental ceramics expert, daughters Mary
Norman landing and being bestowed lands by William I of England">William I
William I may refer to:
Kings
* William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England
* William I of Sicily (died 1166)
* William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion
* William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...
; and his wife a descendant of the Kings of Dalriada. Her great-great-grandfather, Provost of Leith, was the first person to greet a Georgian king (George IV of the United Kingdom, George IV) to Scotland. Her family motto is 'Pro Rege' though he respectfully turned down a hereditary baronetcy. The Dennis family motto is suaviter sed fortiter; they built their fortunes in the 18th and 19th centuries in the chemical industry (Bordeaux Mixture and sugar industry) and were responsible for the construction of Truro Cathedral main tower in 1904.