Newby Hall

The manor of Newby was originally held by the lords of Topcliffe Castle. In St Columba's Church at Topcliffe are several monuments to the Robinson family of Newby and Rainton.[2] After the death of Sir John Crosland in 1670, the Crosland family sold the manor of Newby in the 1690s to Sir Edward Blackett, 2nd Baronet, a Member of Parliament for Ripon. He demolished the existing manor house and in 1697 built a new mansion, reputedly with the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren. In 1697, when visiting Newby, Celia Fiennes described it as "the finest house I saw in Yorkshire".[1] Blackett was succeeded in 1718 by his son Sir Edward Blackett, 3rd Baronet who, in turn, was succeeded by his nephew Sir Edward Blackett, 4th Baronet, who in 1748 sold the estate to Richard Elcock (later Richard Elcock Weddell), to whose young son William Weddell it passed in 1762.[3]

William Weddell (1736–1792), an MP for Malton, benefited from his great-uncle's South Sea Company fortune and improved and enlarged the house during the 1760s. The interior was remodelled, to the designs of several architects, including Robert Adam.[4] The building housed William Weddell's collection of Roman antiquities which he had brought back from Italy during 1764–5.[5] William died in 1792, leaving the estate to Thomas Philip Robinson, Lord Grantham, who later changed his name to Thomas Weddell and was later known as Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey. When he died in 1859, his titles passed to his nephew, George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, 2nd Earl of Ripon, but Newby Hall went to his daughter, Lady Mary Gertrude Robinson, who married Henry Vyner (1805–1861).

Lady Mary commissioned William Burges to build the Church of Christ the Consoler in the grounds in 1871–76 as a memorial to her son, who was killed by bandits in Greece in 1870.[6] An equestrian statue of brought to England by the Vyners and erected in London after the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy, modified to depict Charles II trampling Cromwell, was re-erected at Newby in 1883.[7] Another son, Henry Frederick Clare Vyner (1836–1883), inherited Newby, followed by his brother, Robert Charles de Grey Vyner (1842–1915),[8] who was succeeded by his daughter Mary Evelyn Vyner, who inherited Newby in 1915 and married Lord Alwyne Compton in 1886. She died in 1957.

The present owners, the Compton family, are matrilineal descendants of William Weddell. They have restored the property. The gardens, which have extensive herbaceous borders and woodland walks, were developed in their present form by Major Edward Compton, who took over Newby in 1921. His son Robert Edward John (Robin) Compton, born in 1922, was chairman of Time-Life International for many years. He took over the running of Newby Hall in 1960. He was appointed High Sheriff of North Yorkshire in 1978 and Deputy Lieutenant from 1981.[9] In 1997 Robert Compton handed over the property to his younger son, Richard, his elder son James having inherited the Invercauld estate near Balmoral in Scotland. Robert's father Major Edward Compton had married Sylvia Farquharson of Invercauld.[10]

In 1973 a miniature railway was constructed; it was enlarged in 1985. Running along the bank of the river, a train is pulled by a Battison-built 1/5-scale model of the Royal Scot (6100) on Sundays and bank holidays.[lower-alpha 1] At other times the train is pulled by the Countess De Grey or Lady Mary Vyner, LPG-powered diesel-hydraulic locomotives designed by David Curwen and built by Severn Lamb.[11] The hall was used as the location for Hundreds Hall in the 2018 film The Little Stranger.[12]

Newby Hall holds the National Collection of the genus Cornus (dogwoods).[13]

• Bignamini, I; Hornsby, C (2010). Digging And Dealing In Eighteenth-Century Rome. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300160437.
• Compton, Richard (2004). Newby Hall. Heritage House Group Ltd. ISBN 9780851013947.
• Leach, Peter; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009). Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North. The Buildings of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12665-5.
• Leeds, Museum and Galleries (2004). Drawing from the Past: William Weddell and the Transformation of Newby Hall. Leeds Museum and Galleries.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Newby Hall.

• Stately Homes
• Newby Hall
• The Blacketts of North East England
• Newby Hall Cricket Club