Wanlip Hall was a large house in
Wanlip
Wanlip is a small village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, with a population measured at 305 at the 2011 census. It is a countryside village, north of Birstall, and west of Watermead Country Park and the River So ...
near the English city of
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
. It was the ancestral home of the
Palmer family
Palmer may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land
* Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Palmer (surname), including a list of people and fi ...
. The building was demolished before the Second World War.
History
There was a hall in Wanlip that came into the possession of Walter Palmer of Staffordshire in 1622 from
Sir Walter Aston. The Palmer family were only the third family to own the manor in the last 800 years.
[ This former hall was designed for defence and it had castle-like properties.][
The older hall was demolished and it was replaced by the Palmer family with a new hall in about 1750. They later extended and improved this imposing building that stood beside the ]River Soar
The River Soar () is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. The river then flows north through Leicest ...
.[Wanlip Hall]
European Magazine, 1803, p33, retrieved 1 July 2014
The first baronet was Charles Grave Hudson. He married Harriet who was one of the three daughters of Sir William Pepperell
Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet (27 June 1696 – 6 July 1759) was a merchant and soldier in colonial Massachusetts. He is widely remembered for organizing, financing, and leading the 1745 expedition that captured the French fortr ...
of Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. Harriet's mother was Elizabeth, the daughter of the rich American Isaac Royall. There is a portrait of William Pepperell and his family by John Singleton Copley
John Singleton Copley (July 3, 1738 – September 9, 1815) was an Anglo-American painter, active in both colonial America and England. He was probably born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Anglo-Irish. Afte ...
.
When the nearby river[ was canalised a plan was created to avoid the new canal coming into Wanlip.Leicestershire: Wanlip. 'A Plan of the Navigation as it intended to go by the estate ...]
National Archives, retrieved 9 July 2014 Charles Grave Hudson became a baronet before he died in Wanlip in 1813.Palmer baronets
There have been seven baronetcies created for persons with the surname Palmer, two in the Baronetage of England, one each in the Baronetages of Ireland and of Great Britain and three in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. {{As of, 2021, four of ...
. Unlike many neighbouring manors, the Palmer family resisted the trend to sell off land. The few families that did live at Wanlip eventually moved away leaving the Palmer family as the sole owners and occupiers of 900 acres of land.[ This family did make changes but they reputedly treated the villagers as if they were under their control. In 1901, Archdale Palmer who owned the land died and his widow, Lady Augusta, lived on at Wanlip Hall until 1933. The hall was demolished in 1938.]
Notable residents
* Caroline Abraham (born Palmer) was an artist in New Zealand
References
{{reflist
Buildings and structures in Leicestershire