Winstanley House

Winstanley House in Leicestershire previously called Braunstone Hall, is a building of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register.

[4] In 1769 shortly before his father's death Clement inherited from his maternal relation Humphrey Chetham the whole of the Castleton Estate in Lancashire.

The eldest son (also called Clement) inherited the Braunstone Estate in 1808 when his father died.

Clement died in 1855 and as he was unmarried and had no children the property went to his nephew James Beaumont Winstanley.

He was later exhumed on the authority of Inspector Smith when he heard of the incident and was identified as being James by the group mentioned above.

[11] Smith received a great deal of praise for finding James Winstanley but surprisingly nineteen years later he cast doubt on his own achievement.

In a court case in 1881 about land owned by the family there was a claim that James Winstanley could still be alive.

James was unmarried and had no children so his sister Anna Jane Pochin inherited Braunstone Hall.

She was the daughter of the Reverend George Winstanley, Vicar of Glenfield and Mary Frances Birch.

He retired in 1866 several years after his wife Anna inherited Braunstone Hall so that he could run the estate.

When he died in 1897 his obituary stated that "Captain Pochin lived the quiet life of the country gentleman upon his beautiful estate at Braunstone of which he was intensely fond.

[20][21] These deaths may have influenced Anna Jane who was now managing the Braunstone estate to hand ownership in 1904 to her son Richard Norman Pochin.

Richard had been through the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and had graduated in 1885 to become Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment.

In the same year he placed Kirby Muxloe Castle under the guardianship of the Ministry of Works, and it is now managed by English Heritage.

The family moved to Rownhams House near Southampton where Richard lived for the rest of his life.