Kelmarsh Hall

[1] The present Palladian hall was built in 1732 for William Hanbury, Esq (1704-1768), a famous antiquarian, by Francis Smith of Warwick, to a James Gibbs design; the hall is still today surrounded by its working estate, and comprises both parkland and gardens.

In building the hall, Hanbury was utilising a fortune which had been bolstered by an advantageous marriage to a niece of Viscount Bateman; he went on to acquire the Shobdon estate in Herefordshire and one of his grandchildren, William Hanbury III, succeeded to a Bateman baronetcy.

Richard Christopher Naylor, a Liverpool banker, cotton trader and horse racing enthusiast, purchased the estate in 1864, mainly for its hunting potential.

In 1902, George Granville Lancaster bought the estate; his son, Claude, inherited on his majority in 1924, and it later passed to Claude's elder sister Cicely in 1977; she later established the Kelmarsh Trust to safeguard the estate's future after her death in 1996.

His wife, who became renowned for her work and taste in interior design, subsequently married the owner of the estate, Colonel Lancaster.