Country Images Magazine North March 2018 | Page 14

The Lost Houses
of Derbyshire
by Maxwell Craven
by a three storey square plan diapered brick tower
ending in four ogee topped pinnacles at the
angles, all joined by a pierced stone balustrade,
looming over the Baroque south front, adding
bizarre variety to the roof line, where the
pinnacles were joined by grouped batteries
of Tudor-style chimney stacks. Th e similarity
between this feature and the tower at Worsley
Hall, near Manchester or the porch at Pull Court,
Worcestershire, suggests that the architect may
well have been Derby-born Edward Blore (1787-
1879) a friend of Sir Walter Scott and designer
of the fi nished version of Buckingham Palace
and the exotic palace in the Crimea for Prince
Worontsov.
Reputedly the interior was much modifi ed to
suit the architect and clients’ Romantic vision,
to become thoroughly Gothic, Smith’s staircase
being replaced by an epic stone one in the tower
which would not have disgraced a Hollywood
fi lm set. Th e park was also re-ordered – by whom
is not known – and the modest lake extended
to no less than 24 acres, lying on the north side
of the house where the architect also provided a
picturesque boat house.
On the death of the initiator of those momentous
changes, Sir Charles Abney-Hastings 2nd Bt., in
1858, the estate passed to a cousin, Lady Edith
Maude Rawdon-Hastings, daughter of George,
2nd Marquess of Hastings (who had inherited
the Hastings’ Ashby estates from his mother)
and heiress of her ne’er do well brother, the 4th
(and last) Marquess, who had lost most of his
Scottish estates with two rash bets on the 1867
and 1868 Derbys and died shortly aft erwards at
26. Edith married Th omas Clift on of Clift on in
Lancashire (who assumed the surname and arms
of Abney-Hastings - by Act of Parliament, no
less) and inherited the Earldom of Loudoun from
her brother. She died in 1874, six years before
her widower was raised to a barony as 1st Lord
Donington. She planted an avenue of trees all the
way (not admittedly that far) from the house to
her ancestors’ home at Ashby Castle, and by the
time her son had succeeded her as Earl of Loudon
and 2nd Lord Donington, the estate had grown,
despite the best eff orts of her late brother, to
13,000 acres.
In 1919 Lady Edith’s son died without a male
heir, and the estate was sold up. Th e house and
some of the land was bought by Maj. J. Ashworth,
a Nottingham attorney who sold the park two
years later to the local golf club, and turned the
house into an hotel, run by one Chapman, but
on his departure in 1929, it began to fall on hard
times and closed in 1936, aft er which the house
was never lived in again.
Th e stubborn remains of the north side of Willesley hall, awaiting the next charge, 1953 [Ashby LHS]
Th e north front seen from the lake, c. 1904, showing Blore’s extraordinary tower,
also from a post card [MC]
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Th e house even had a railway locomotive named
aft er it, although as it was a Great Western one,
the connection might seem obscure (unless Lord
Donington had been a director of the line). Th is
was Modifi ed Hall class 4-6-0 No. 6967 Willesley
Hall, built in 1944 and named two years later.
It lasted until modernisation caught up with it,
being scrapped in December 1965. Th e only other
Derbyshire house to share this accolade is the very
much still standing Foremark Hall.
Th e house remained empty and decaying until
1953 when it was – with considerable diffi culty,
thanks to Blore’s substantially built works –
blown up with dynamite. Once the site was
cleared, the immediate surroundings became (and
still are) the local scout HQ and camping ground,
a fragment of Blore’s substantial stable block
remaining as part of the otherwise unpretentious
building. Th e lake, happily survives, although
the contours and planting of the park have been
somewhat altered by the golf club.