Greenhill Lane B6016
Derbyshire- Lost Houses
He was also a keen improver . It was probably he who built a quirky little octagonal domed roofed summer house close to the house just to the left of the entrance , rather like the top of the Prospect tower at Croome Court , plonked down on the lawn .
He also added a single extra matching bay to the west end of the house , continuing in that direction for a further four bays under a conventional tiled roof as a service wing . Although also of three storeys , it was slightly lower and set back a foot or so from the main line of the façade and screened from the park behind trees . Not content with that , he set about planning an even larger house , still three storeys high , but with a five bay centrepiece flanked by full height domed bays , apparently with Pantheon-style oculi in the tops , a favourite conceit of architect James Wyatt who , although documentary proof is lacking , almost certainly was the architect .
The domed bay on the south east angle turned the corner to a four bay north front , but the other , oddly , had a single further bay beyond before turning , the north front containing the service wing . It would have been oddly grand and had much of the flavour of James Wyatt ’ s nephew Jeffry ’ s 1802 proposals for a new house for the FitzHerberts at Tissington .
1866 and was succeeded in house and living by his nephew , the 9th Baronet ’ s younger son Revd . Nigel Gresley , father of the celebrated locomotive engineer , Sir Nigel Gresley ( his fourth son ), designer of Flying Scotsman and Mallard , who was born at the house . Unfortunately , the Blue Plaque set up by the County Council on the rectory wall at Netherseal , declares that he was born at the rectory , but his father of course lived at the hall , leaving his curate to enjoy the new-built rectory . People ( and several of his biographers ) have always assumed he was born in the rectory because his father was the rector , whereas in reality he was the ‘ squarson ’, resident at the hall .
Sir Nigel ’ s father set about improving the house yet again starting about 1870 . This time it was a
major transformation . Yet another bay was added to the west end of the façade , from which the parapet was stripped to be replaced by a series of six small sinuously shaped merlons , each topped by a ball finial and pierced by a blind oeuil-deboeuf and none matching the rhythm of the eight bays below them . At the west end , the old service wing was removed and a new north-south facing wing added , also of three storeys , of four bays , with matching string courses over the fenestration and paned sash windows all under a dwarf parapet and looking rather old fashioned for its date . A new , two storey service wing was built beyond it and Barrons re-landscaped the grounds . It is presumed further alterations were made within , if only to accommodate the demands of the new extension .
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Gresley had already turned his attention to the gardens in the late 1750s , but twenty years later started on the parkland , which he extended northwards , producing a bucolic vista ending in a thatched rustic cottage eye-catcher , which also acted as a shooting lodge , set against trees . It was designed by a friend , the dilettante architect and landscape guru William Combe ( 1741-1823 ). Much to everyone ’ s surprise , this turned up , long forgotten and semi-ruinous , sequestered in woodland in 2004 , perceptively recognised for what it was by Philip Heath , then the local council ’ s heritage officer . Subsequently it has been neatly restored , although the intervening landscape is lost
The Revd . Thomas Gresley died in 1785 leaving a son , William ( 1760-1829 ) who was not only his father ’ s successor as rector , but also an improver of the house , too . He re-ordered the interior , sashed the windows of the main house and improved the entrance with a boxy porch round 1810 , before being succeeded by his eldest son , who also succeeded his distant cousin as 9th Baronet and to the main family estate at Drakelow .
The younger half-brother , Revd . John Morewood Gresley , had the house settled upon him , and once again served as rector of the church . His wife , Penelope , née Vavasour , also recorded the delightful landscape for posterity . He died in
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