Apethorpe Hall

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Apethorpe Hall in 1829

Apethorpe Hall, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire is a Grade 1 listed hall, dating back to the 15th Century.

In its prime, the hall entertained much royalty, including Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. The hall had been empty for 20 years from the late 1970's and was becoming dangerously unsafe, with incipient damp and rot. When English Heritage started its "At risk" register in 1998, the hall was included on it.

In September 2004 the Hall was compulsorily purchased by the Government under section 47 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (only the second time the Government has had to use these powers) and is now undergoing a £4 million refurbishment.

[edit] The building & manor

The house and manor orignally belonged to Guy Wolston [circa 1491] and later passed to Wolston's son-in-law Thomas Empson. In 1515 they were purchased by a London grocer, Henry Keble, whose grandson was Lord Mountjoy, who sold them to King Henry VIII.

Subsequently the property passed to Sir Walter Mildmay the Chancellor of the Exchequer and thence to his grandson-in-law, Sir Francis Fane (1617), who later became the Earl of Westmorland - it remained in this family until 1904, when it was purchased by (the later) Lord Brassey of Apethorpe.

The house is built around two courtyards lying on an east-west axis and is approximately 120 feet by 240 feet in area.

From the windows on the east side of the hall, Sir Walter Mildmay, who was then the Chancellor of the Exchequer, watched the procession announcing the arrival att he house of Elizabeth I. Apethorpe was one of the queen's favourite overnight stops on the Great North Road. The queen, James I and later Charles I between them made some thirteen visits to the house, which is still acknowledged one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.

After World War II much of the adjoining parkland was sold and the house became an approved school before falling into disrepair. In 1982, school closed down and in 1983 the building was sold to a Libyan businessman, Wanis Mohamed Burweila.

Burweila left the building vacant leading to its deterioration; this in turn lead to him, in 2001, being served a Statutory Repairs Notice, which is an order from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, requiring him to undertake certain urgent works to ensure the future of the building. In order to avoid doing this, Burweila sold the property to a developer called Kestral Armana Ltd, (subsequently renamed Apethorpe Country Estate Ltd (ACEL)).

[edit] Sources

Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England – Northamptonshire. ISBN 0-300-09632-1
English Heritage.
BBC Radio Northampton - 6 March 2007
BBC Look East - 5 March 2007