Ketton Hall
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There have been three previous Halls on the site of the present Ketton Hall, the earliest of which may date back to a stone on the property of 1649. The present Hall was built in 1928 in a Lutyens style and is constructed of stone with a Collyweston slate roof. Only the wall to Ketton Hall is grade II listed.
- Noel: In 1786 Ketton Hall was bought by Gerard Noel Edwards who lived there with his wife Diana, his sons Charles Noel (later the new 1st Earl of Gainsborough) and William Middleton Noel, his widowed mother Lady Jane née Noel and his sisters Sophia Elizabeth and Anna Margaretta. Sophia died in 1793 (whilst visting her uncle, the 6th Earl of Gainsborough, at Exton Hall) while Anna died at Ketton Hall in 1807.
- Eaton: Between 1822 and 1835, the Eaton family lived at Ketton Hall. Stephen Ormston Eaton (d. 1834) and his son Charles Ormston Eaton (d. 1907) lived at Ketton Hall. Stephen had co-founded the Eaton, Cayley & Co. Bank in Stamford which his son Charles continued to manage. The bank was eventually amalgamated into Barclays Bank in 1911. In the 1850s the Eaton family moved to Tixover Hall and then in the 1860s they bought Tolethorpe Hall where it remained in the family until 1967. Charles's son Hubert Eaton lived at Ketton Grange during the 1900's.
- Sowerby: Between 1837 and 1848, George Sowerby lived there with his family. In 1845 he presented a petition to the House of Lords opposing the railway coming to Ketton which would run within 200 yards of his house. In 1848, four months after the railway station opened, he sold the house to Lord Burghley
- Cecil: Between around 1851 and 1857, Lord William Alleyne Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Exeter & Lady Georgina lived at Ketton Hall. Their son Lord Francis Horace Pierrepont was born there in 1851 and their daughter Lady Isabella Georgiana Katherine was born there in 1853.
- Ewart: Between around 1858 and 1860, John William Cheney Ewart was living at Ketton Hall when he married Jane Ann Lucy Johnson in Witham on the Hill.
- Fazakerley: Between around 1862 and 1866, John Nicholas Fazakerley, a British Whig politician, and his wife Georgiana Caroline lived at Ketton Hall. Georgiana's sister Edith Galfrida moved to The Cottage in Aldgate with her husband Thomas Henry Burroughes around the same time.
- Noel: Between around 1867 and 1877, Hon. Henry Lewis Noel lived at Ketton Hall (son of the the 1st Earl of Gainsborough [second creation])
- 1873: The Hall was demolished and rebuilt
- Hopwood: Between 1877 and 1900, the Hopwood family lived at Ketton Hall. English Liberty Party politician and barrister John Turner Hopwood and his wife Mary Augusta. He commissioned celebrated French organ builder Cavaillé-Coll to build him a pipe organ. Once it had been built in 1870 in a Paris workshop hall, Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the first people to play it. The organ was installed in Ketton Hall in 1883. John died on New Year's Day 1900 at his London residence. Mary Augusta died in 1904 while visiting a friend in Wandworth. Mary Augusta was the granddaughter of the 8th Earl of Coventry. Her brother Henry married the Vicar of Ketton, Rev. John Henry Noyes's daughter Fanny.
- Hollins: Between 1901 and the 1920s, Richard Roger Hollins and his children lived at Ketton Hall. Richard was a merchant for a South African goldmine (West Rand Consolidated Mines) - he was one of the original diamond diggers in the Vaal river in South Africa in the 1870s. His children Percy, Richard and Constance lived there with him at various times, but the whole family spent much time in South Africa. In 1910 Constance married a man from South Africa in Ketton Church. Richard's wife died in Cape Town, South Africa in 1914.
- In 1925 Ketton Hall was sold to Ketton Portland Cement Company who demolished it in 1926. It was rebuilt as a smaller house.
- Fenwick: In the early 1930s Captain Charles Henry and his second wife Winifred Lonsdale née Ryrie lived at Ketton Hall with their children Ian and Angela (married Henry Hamilton van Straubenzee)
- Baldwin: In the mid 1930s until the 1950s, Sir John Baldwin and his wife Lady Kathleen lived at Ketton House. John was an Air Marshal in the RAF, while Kathleen was the granddaughter of Sir Joseph Terry, founder of Terry's confectionery company in York
With regret, we record the death of Mary Augusta, wife of Mr J T Hopwood of Ketton Hall, which took place on Thursday week last. Mrs Hopwood, who was the daughter of the late Hon. Henry Coventry, was on a visit to Miss Moore, at South Field Grange, Wandsworth. At about 6:30am on Thursday she was seized with apoplexy. Medical assistance was at once obtained, but from the first the doctor feared fatal results, and death ensued about 3:30pm. When it was found the case was so critical, the members of the family were summoned, but they did not arrive in time. Mr Hopwood only being present as the deceased passed away. The late Mrs Hopwood was fifty-three years of age. She was deeply interested in all social, philanthropic, and religious work in the neighbourhood. She had a mission room in Ketton and regularly held mothers' meetings and gatherings of a similar nature up to the winter of 1893 when she had to abandon the work she had so much at heart in consequence of frequent absence from this district. News of Mrs Hopwood's death reached Ketton at about 6pm on Thursday, and the sad event, which was totally unexpected, caused deep sorrow throughout the village. the annual flower show, under the auspices of the Ketton and Tixover Cottage Gardener's Association, was being held at the time in the grounds of Ketton Hall, by permission of Mr Hopwood, and on the receipt of the painful intelligence by telegraph, the committee at once decided to close the exhibition as a mark of respect.
The marriage of Miss Constance Merlyne Ethel Hollins to Mr Stuart Graham Wallace took place on Thursday in St Mary's Church in Ketton. The weather during the ceremony was beautiful, the sun shining gloriously, and the auspicious circumstances tended to swell the number seeking to view the proceedings. Miss Hollins, unlike many who select some fashionable church in town, had decided to enter the hymeneal state in the presence of villagers, amongst whom the Hall family manifest a most kindly and generous regard, and the bride had the additional joy of knowing that her happiness was a subject of pleasure to the parishioners - the numerous gifts sent her by so many sections of the residents affording striking and eloquent testimony of her popularity. The bride is the only daughter of Mr Richard R Hollins, of Ketton Hall, who is largely interested in the Transvaal and Rhodesia. The bridegroom is the eldest son of Captain Robert Edward Wallace - the family for many years resided in Kimberley, South Africa, and were among its best known citizens. Mr Wallace's family are the direct descendants of the well-known Scottish family of that name. Among the five hundred guests were Lord and Lady Gainsborough, Sir Eustace Fiennes (grandfather of Sir Ranulph), Mrs Hubert Eaton, Mr and Mrs T H Burroughes, Major and Mrs Gorton, Mrs Tweddell, Miss Elwes and Mr and Mrs Molesworth. The couple will make an extended tour of Scotland before setting up residence in South Africa.
Apart from the rejoicings in the family circle, hundreds of the villagers have been enabled to participate in the celebration of the auspicious event. All the children from three to fifteen were invited by Miss Hollins to the Hall on Saturday afternoon for a splendid tea in the park. After the tea, Mr T E W Wellstead (schoolmaster), on behalf of the schoolchildren, presented the bride with a pair of handsome silver dressing room candlesticks and a silver book market. Suitable acknowledgement was made by Miss Hollins who said she was ever value the gifts as mementoes of the time spent amongst them. Sports and games followed, excellent prizes being provided, and sweets and wedding cake were much appreciated. The festivities continued in the evening when four or five hundred residents of the village and neighbourhood received invitations to the Hall. The people inspected the lovely gardens and danced in the Park while the Ketton Band played. Hundreds of Japanese lanterns illuminated the scene at dusk.
Employees at Ketton Hall gave the couple a silver rose bowl, illuminated address. The tradesman of Ketton gave the couple four silver salt cellars. The parishioners of Ketton gave the couple a silver sugar bowl and cream jug. The widows of Ketton gave the couple a pair of silver salt cellars. The Excelsior Band of Ketton gave the couple a pair of silver candlesticks