| Stanford Hall, Nottinghamshire | |
|---|---|
| Stanford Hall Notts.jpg Stanford Hall |
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| General information | |
| Town or city | Stanford on Soar |
| Country | England |
| Construction started | 1771 |
| Completed | 1774 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | William Anderson of Loughborough |
Stanford Hall is an English country house in Nottinghamshire, England, in Stanford on Soar just north of Loughborough.
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Stanford Hall was built between 1771 and 1774 by William Anderson of Loughborough for Charles Vere Dashwood. In 1876 it was purchased by Richard Ratcliffe, a brewer from Burton on Trent, and it passed to his son, also Richard on his death in 1898. In 1928 the owner was Kathleen Kimball.
In 1928 Sir Julien Cahn purchased the Hall for £70,000 (£3,126,432 as of 2012),[1]
Here Cahn built himself a cricket pitch, nine-hole golf course, bowling green, large trout lake, Sea Lion pool, Lido, tennis court and thatched pavilion, an enormous outdoor heated swimming pool with coral walls holding fountains and artificial caves added to the fantastic wooded parkland and formal gardens.
The largest addition was a theatre designed by Cecil Aubrey Masey built in 1937 for £73,000 (£3,491,324 as of 2012)[1] which seated 352 people. The walls were decorated with murals by Beatrice MacDermott. It comprised a raked auditorium, orchestra pit and Wurlitzer organ which can be raised and lowered during performances. The organ was made for Théâtre de la Madeleine, Paris. It was purchased by Sir Julien Cahn for £20,000 and enlarged when it was installed.
The house was extensively remodelled over the next decade under the direction of Sir Charles Allom, principal of arguably the finest of the large interior decorating concerns, White Allom Ltd. Together with Queen Mary, Sir Charles advised on the redecoration of Buckingham Palace and had many multi-millionaire clients, such as Henry Clay Frick, whose Fifth Avenue town house now houses the Frick Collection and whose decoration by White Allom is highly regarded. The same is true of Stanford Hall.
Stanford Hall retains most of the superb interior structures and installations of Cahn's day, though most of the art moderne marble bathrooms were removed in the 1960s. The furnishings selected with Sir Charles Allom were of the highest quality. The inclusion of many fine antiques, and the theming of the rooms by date and country gave the impression of a house that had evolved over time. By 1940 it was one of the finest and most luxurious of small country houses in the United Kingdom. Cahn died in the White Allom panelled library in 1944.
In 1944 the hall was purchased for £54,000 in 1945 (£1,727,413 as of 2012),[1] by the Co-operative Union who used it to house its Co-operative College.
The Co-operative College relocated to Holyoake House in Manchester in 2001 and sold Stanford Hall to Raynsway Properties, who planned to convert it into a 148-bedroom hotel.
In March 2007 the Hall was sold by Leicester-based Raynsway Properties for £6.25 million to Chek Whyte Industries, who planned to convert it and built a £60m retirement village within the grounds.[2] In March 2009, the grounds hosted the English schools cross country championships. In October 2009, after the fall in property prices because of the recession, Chek Whyte obtained an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) in order to avoid bankruptcy.
In October 2011 the Hall and its grounds were purchased on behalf of Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster as a potential site for a ‘Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre’ (DNRC). The Duke, who has served in the Territorial Army since the age of 20 and who is committed to supporting military welfare, will lead a major donor fund raising campaign to cover the capital costs of the Defence element of the proposed new establishment. On 13 October 2011 the Government announced the next stages in the DNRC project following a comprehensive feasibility study. If the decision is made to proceed with a DNRC, it is the Duke’s intention to donate the Stanford Hall site to the project.