Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, England, is an elegant, 18th-century

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 ...

about south of Market Harborough and north of

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

. It is a

Grade I listed 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 ...

house and is open to public viewing. The present Palladian hall was built in 1732 for William Hanbury, Esq (1704-1768), a famous antiquarian, by

Francis Smith of Warwick Francis Smith of Warwick (1672–1738) was an English master-builder and architect, much involved in the construction of country houses in the Midland counties of England. Smith of Warwick may refer also to his brothers, or his son. Architectura ...

, to a James Gibbs design; the hall is still today surrounded by its working estate, and comprises both parkland and gardens. Pevsner described the building as, “a perfect, extremely reticent design… done in an impeccable taste." In building the hall, Hanbury was utilising a fortune which had been bolstered by an advantageous marriage to a niece of

Viscount Bateman Viscount Bateman was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 12 July 1725 for William Bateman, previously Member of Parliament for Leominster and the son of Sir James Bateman, Lord Mayor of London from 1716 to 1717. He was made Baron ...

; he went on to acquire the Shobdon estate in Herefordshire and one of his grandchildren, William Hanbury III, succeeded to a Bateman baronetcy. Richard Christopher Naylor, a Liverpool banker, cotton trader and horse racing enthusiast, purchased the estate in 1864, mainly for its hunting potential. In 1902, George Granville Lancaster bought the estate; his son, Claude, inherited on his majority in 1924, and it later passed to Claude's elder sister Cicely in 1977; she later established th
Kelmarsh Trust
to safeguard the estate's future after her death in 1996. Ronald Tree and his wife Nancy, née Perkins (later known as Nancy Lancaster) took a 6-year repairing lease on the Hall in 1929. Tree became the Member of Parliament for

Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the ad ...

in 1933. His wife, who became renowned for her work and taste in interior design, subsequently married the owner of the estate, Colonel Lancaster.

References

External links

Kelmarsh Hall home page
Country houses in Northamptonshire Gardens in Northamptonshire Historic house museums in Northamptonshire Grade I listed buildings in Northamptonshire {{Northamptonshire-struct-stub