Oakley Hall, Staffordshire

In about 1710 Sir John Chetwode, Baronet, (High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1691 and 1698) replaced the old house with a two-storey mansion.

The house is built of brick on a sandstone plinth with a balustraded entrance front of eleven bays, the central three of which were pedimented.

He had sons, both seriously injured before and during WW2: Ian and Lance (Spitfire V pilot) (grandsons: Honourable Professor Royal Biology Society Dr Roger L H Dennis BA, PhD, DSc (Dunelm) FLS, FRSB, FGS, FRES [Internationally recognised butterfly biologist, and who saved a boy's life in the Teign estuary in 1959 when only 10 years old] and Cyril T H Dennis Esq., BSc, BA, MA, VetMB, MRCVS (Camb) [Veterinary Surgeon and Oriental ceramics expert]), daughters Mary [grandson: Martin Peel Esq.

Her great-great-grandfather, Provost of Leith, was the first person to greet a Georgian king (George IV) to Scotland.

The Dennis family motto is suaviter sed fortiter; they built their fortunes in the 18th and 19th centuries in the chemical industry (Bordeaux Mixture and sugar industry) and were responsible for the construction of Truro Cathedral main tower in 1904.