Derbyshire- Lost Houses thought previously to have held a lot more land in Derbyshire prior to a rebellion in which he was notionally involved in 1073 , including some significant chunks of Derby itself .
At Walton , his successors showed the same sort of generosity that Hugh had shown to Goscelin de Touchet , granting the manorial estate at Walton to Robert , son of their seneschal , Sir Roger de Montalt . He granted the manor to Walter de Staunton ( Harold ), but one hears no more of this family in the context of Walton . Robert de Montalt died childless , and the property reverted to Queen Isabella on his widow ’ s death . She , however , re-granted it to John Delves of Delves Hall , Cheshire – ancestor of the cuckolded husband and chief suspect in the notorious 1941 ‘ Happy Valley ’ Kenyan murder case , Sir Jock Delves-Broughton . From John Delves ’ heirs it was finally sold in 1349 to Robert , 2 nd Lord Ferrers of Chartley .
Ferrers was the son of the disgraced 6 th Earl of Derby . Chartley was the one substantial estate they had salvaged from the Earl ’ s attainder in 1265 . His junior descendants , seated at Tamworth Castle , built the Old Hall at Walton in the 16 th century . Before that time , all the manor ’ s lords had held great estates elsewhere , so if there was a capital mansion there ( and a moated site near the church very much suggests there was ) it would have been sub-tenanted or occupied by a bailiff .
Today , it is very difficult to know what this house – Walton Old Hall – must have been like . By the era of photography , it had been reduced to a one-gabled brick remnant , with more of its accompanying stable block surviving , long
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