Elton Hall

{{Short description|Grade I listed country house in Cambridgeshire}}

{{Infobox military installation

| name = Elton Hall

| native_name =

| partof =

| location =

| nearest_town = Elton, Cambridgeshire

| country = England

| image = Elton Hall and gardens (geograph 5515547).jpg

| caption = Elton Hall

| pushpin_map = Cambridgeshire

| pushpin_label = Elton Hall

| pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Cambridgeshire

| coordinates = {{Coord|52|31|25|N|0|23|51|W|region:GB_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| type = Baronial hall

| code =

| site_area =

| height =

| ownership = Proby Family

| operator =

| controlledby =

| open_to_public = end of May through September (see website for schedule)

| condition =

| built =

| builder =

| used = 15th century-Present

| materials =

| fate =

| battles =

| events =

| past_commanders =

| garrison =

| occupants =

| website = http://www.eltonhall.com/

| footnotes = {{gbmapping|TL 08828 92960}}

}}

Elton Hall is a country house in Elton, Cambridgeshire. It has been the ancestral home of the Proby family (sometime known as the Earls of Carysfort) since 1660.

The hall lies in an {{convert|3800|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate through which the River Nene runs. The building incorporates 15th-, 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century parts and is a Grade I listed building.{{NHLE|num=1164802 |desc=ELTON HALL |accessdate=30 March 2015 }} The Victorian gardens were renovated in the 20th and 21st centuries and contain a knot garden, a rose garden and a Gothic orangery built to celebrate the Millennium.Members Guide 2012, published by CPRE, 2012

Descent

=Sapcote=

File:ShapcottArms MollandChurch Devon.png

File:SapcoteImpalingDinhamBamptonChurchDevon.JPG, Devon, sometimes shown with a chevron or between the dovecotes (Vivian, p.677, pedigree of Shapcott of Shapcott) impaling Dinham Gules, four fusils in fess ermine (quartering Arches Gules, three arches argent), Bampton Church, Devon]]

File:RussellSapcoteMatch TawstockChurch Devon.jpg impaling Sapcote, for his marriage in 1526 to Anne Sapcote, daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote of Huntingdonshire. Tawstock Church, Devon]]

Elton Hall was built by Sir Richard Sapcote (d. 1477),{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol3/pp154-166|title = Parishes: Elton | British History Online}} who married Isabel Wolston, widow of Sir John Frauncis of Burley, Rutland. His sculpted arms survive in Elton Church showing his arms impaling three turnstiles, for Wolston.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/26430320623/ see image]

Sir John Sapcote (d. 1501) added a large chapel at the south corner, described in Camden's Britannia as adorned with beautiful painted glass windows.{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol3/pp154-166|title = Parishes: Elton | British History Online}} He married (as her second husband) Elizabeth Dynham (died 1516), a daughter of Sir John Dinham (1406–1458) of Nutwell and Kingskerswell in South Devon and of Hartland in North Devon. Her first husband was Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin, feudal baron of Bampton in Devon, and having survived Sapcote she remarried thirdly to Sir Thomas Brandon. A stained glass window in Bampton Church survives which records Sir John Sapcote's marriage, showing his arms impaling Dinham (Gules, four fusils in fess ermine) quartering Arches (Gules, three arches argent).

In 1526 John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c.1485-1555), KG, married Anne Sapcote, daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote of Huntingdonshire by his wife Margaret WolstonTudorplace and widow successively of John Broughton (d. 24 January 1518)*{{Cite book |title = The Manors of Suffolk |last = Copinger |first = W. A. |authorlink=Walter Arthur Copinger |location = Manchester |publisher = Taylor, Garnett, Evans and Co. Ltd. |year = 1910 |volume = 6 |pages = 156, 319 |url = https://archive.org/stream/cu31924092579592#page/n167/mode/2up |access-date = 3 June 2013}}[http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenBrooke-Bu.htm Katherine Broughton (c.1514-April 23, 1535), A Who’s Who of Tudor Women: Brooke-Bu, compiled by Kathy Lynn Emerson to update and correct Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth-Century England (1984)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020115118/http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenBrooke-Bu.htm |date=October 20, 2013 }} Retrieved 1 June 2013. of Toddington, Bedfordshire, by whom she had a son and three daughters, and secondly of Sir Richard Jerningham (d.1525), by whom she had no issue.{{Cite ODNB |title = Jerningham, Sir Richard (d. 1525) |last = MacMahon |first = Luke |url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/70794 |access-date = 31 May 2013 |year = 2004 |doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/70794}} {{subscription required |date=May 2013}} By Anne Sapcote he was the father of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford (1527–1585).

Robert Sapcote (d. Jan.1600/1), was probably the last of his family to live at Elton. His ledger stone formerly in the chapel of Elton Hall survives in Elton Church[https://www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/26420516813/ see image]

=Proby=

File:ProbyArms.svg

Shortly after 1617{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hunts/vol3/pp154-166|title = Parishes: Elton | British History Online}} Elton was purchased by Sir Peter Proby, a former Lord Mayor of London, from the Sapcote family. The house was rebuilt between 1662 and 1689 by his grandson Sir Thomas Proby, 1st Baronet, incorporating the chapel and gatehouse of a previous 15th century building. A new wing was also added to the west. He was succeeded by his younger brother John Proby (died 1710) who added a further extension. The estate descended via John's cousin to John Joshua Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort, who carried out extensive modifications in the Gothic style between 1780 and 1815, of which part still remains.

In about 1855 it descended to Granville Leveson Proby, 3rd Earl of Carysfort, who employed the architect Henry Ashton to remodel the house, rebuilding the north-west cross wing and refacing other wings in stone. In 1860 the chapel range was extended and a bay between the chapel and the house rebuilt. Granville Leveson Proby, 4th Earl of Carysfort added a tower to the chapel block and a billiards room and kitchens to north-east. William Proby, 5th Earl of Carysfort demolished an 18th-century tower and built two octagonal turrets. Various other changes have taken place since.

On the 5th Earl's death in 1909 the estate passed, via his sister Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, to her son Colonel Douglas Hamilton who adopted the surname of Proby and laid out new gardens which were further developed by Meredyth Proby from 1980. The property still remains in the private ownership of the Proby family (Proby baronets since 1952).

The interior

The south front (garden) incorporates the 15th-century tower and chapel which date from the reign of Henry VII. The Marble Hall and main staircase were designed by Henry Ashton. They are a mid-19th-century recreation of an 18th-century decorative style. The drawing room was created from the medieval chapel in the mid-18th century and is the house's biggest room. The ceiling also dates from the 18th century, but the decoration is Ashton's, as is the dining room, although the Gothic windows are replicas of those which were once in the medieval chapel. The main library contains a large collection, and the house has three in total, including the inner library in the Sapcote Tower. The current chapel was formed from the undercroft of the Sapcotes' chapel and has original vaulting.[http://www.eltonhall.com/house.html "The House" at eltonhall.com]