Obscure country seats, mainly
Joined February 2010
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(See also: handedon.wordpress.com/2019/…)
'I went to Eton and Oxford, so to say that I’m not part of the establishment is ridiculous!'
For this week's Great Estates I went to Wales to interview Sir Charlie Gladstone at Hawarden – and see the Grand Old Man's desk – and it was really good fun!
telegraph.co.uk/gift/163c5a5…
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Services rendered to Henry VIII’s then right-hand man Cardinal Thomas Wolsey gained the Staveley family the North Stainley estate near #Ripon, which remains their home today. It has been - quite literally - a roller-coaster ride:
handedon.wordpress.com/2026/…
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The death has been announced of Robin Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, 5th Baron Derwent of ever-private Hackness Hall, held by this family since 1707 and set amidst 12,000 acres in North Yorkshire handedon.wordpress.com/2013/……
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New film ‘Our land’ examines the right to roam. Owners of large estates sharing their perspective include bombastic Francis Fulford and lesser-spotted Hugh Inge-Innes-Lillingston of Thorpe Hall #Staffs passed by descent since 1631
ourlanddocumentary.com
handedon.wordpress.com/2015/……
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The US attack on Iran sees the media turning again to an obscure corner of North Yorkshire, Hauxwell Hall, the home of Sir Richard Dalton, ex UK ambassador to Iran. Little-known, always private Hauxwell has been the seat of the Dalton family since 1631:
handedon.wordpress.com/2022/…
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Substantial archives of several landed families are included in the 2025 report of the Cultural Gifts Scheme, ‘a crucial route by which public collections can acquire culturally significant objects, accepted in lieu of tax’.
artscouncil.org.uk/supportin…
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Among them ‘the Shaw-Hellier collection, an astonishing survival as a collection of musical instruments & manuscripts that has remained intact since it was assembled in the 1750s/60s, later cared for by successive generations of the family at their home’: handedon.wordpress.com/2024/…
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The story of the Tapps-Gervis-Meyrick baronets, their accumulated near-20,000 acres of England & Wales, and two ever-private country piles, is here: handedon.wordpress.com/2016/…
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‘In the village there are people who have never seen the castle, don’t know that it exists.’ In 1991 Anthony Wharton inherited the 11,000-acre Skelton Castle estate - passed by descent since the C17th - from a distant cousin. Major Wharton died last week. handedon.wordpress.com/2021/…
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NEW “They have a French butler now at Woodhouse, who the young ladies shake hands with, and who chatters and talks all the time he is in the room. He will be an addition indeed. I tremble when I think of him” #CharlesDarwin’s sister writing to him in 1832: handedon.wordpress.com/2025/…
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The death has been announced of former High Court judge Sir John Blofeld, whose son is squire of the little-seen family seat, Hoveton House. The Grade I house has passed by descent since its 1680s construction, ‘remarkably little altered through the ages’ handedon.wordpress.com/2017/…
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Wemyss Castle remains the private home of the Wemyss family #antiquesroadshow handedon.wordpress.com/2023/…
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The Grade I listed Elizabethan banqueting house reflected in the recently revived pond at Weston Hall, near Otley #yorkshire handedon.wordpress.com/2017/…
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The story of the Castletown Estate in Cumbria, as featured on the latest edition of #countryfile handedon.wordpress.com/2017/…
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For a Georgian landed dynasty 137 years was a very long time to go between male heirs. But the Franco-Scottish Mercer family remain at world record holding Meikleour and its Scots Baronial chateau after more than seven centuries: handedon.wordpress.com/2025/…
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