Brockhall Hall and Manor - Brockhall Estate, Northamptonshire, UK - Pre-Victorian Historic Homes on Waymarking.com

This Estate property is close-knit so we are waymarking the buildings together.

The Hall on the west of the country road running through the Estate is partly Norman and partly early English style and adjoins the Church of St Peter and St Paul directly.

The Manor House on the east of the road is a Rectory. Brockhall consists of 850 acres and includes part of the Grand Union Canal and M1 motorway in the grounds. The country road is a gated one through the sheep fields and is a scenic route to enjoy.

Northamptonshire County Council has the following information:
'Thornton (Brockhall ) 1283-1950, 3671 docs., 70 boxes, refs. Th & ThB

Brockhall was built by Edward Eyton but he sold the house to Thomas Thornton of Newnham in 1652. Thornton was a lawyer and Recorder of Daventry. Thomas Reeve Thornton (d. 1862) married Susannah Fremeaux, the heiress of her grandfather James Fremeaux of Kingsthorpe (d. 1799). Fremeaux was a Huguenot merchant who had been naturalized in 1752 and had acquired the Cooke estate at Kingsthorpe in 1762 through his own marriage. He built Kingsthorpe hall to designs by John Johnson in 1773. Kingsthorpe went to T.R. Thornton's 3rd son the rev. William Thornton. Brockhall was inherited by The Rev. Thornton's eldest son in 1884 and Kingsthorpe went again to a younger son Francis Hugh Thornton (see below). The Thorntons remained at Brockhall until 1969. On the death of col. Thomas Anson Thornton in 1978 the male line became extinct. Brockhall is now divided up into flats.

The following are available as archives:
Gentry family with estates in Brockhall, Norton, Muscott, Dodford, Newnham, Badby, Daventry, Farthingstone, Flore, Weedon Bec, Brixworth, Brafield and Little Houghton, Cold Ashby, Ladbrooke (Warwickshire) and Budge Row (London). Charters for Brockhall, manor court rolls for Newnham and Badby from 1407, 16th and 17thC. customs. Papers on breaking up of Evesham Abbey estates at Dissolution and on Daventry Priory. 17thC. papers on management of common field system at Newnham. Flore inclosure account book 1778. late 17th/18thC. estate and household account books. 18thC. estate correspondence. Thomas Thornton's account book 1582 - 1600. Samuel Thornton's accounts as a London merchant 1680 - 1696. Good 17th/ 18th/19thC. family correspondence, on marriage of William Thornton, 1750's, on education of sons 1780's, illness of John Thornton, early 19thC. Notebooks as J.P.'s 1700 - 1718, 1789, travel journals 1820's, Norfolk, Wales and Ireland, Devon, 1846 inventory.

Papers on the executorships of Dr. [Paul] Ives and Thomas Adams of Whilton, mid 18thC. On Poultney family estate at Misterton (Leicestershire) 1590 - 1632. On Lee family estate at Cold Ashby 1619 - 1740. Diaries of William Lee 1723 - 1728 (on microfilm). Accounts for late Cordwell Hammond of Putney, draper, 1681 - 1691. On Thomas Boddington of Clapton (Middlesex) 18th/early19thC.

18thC. Brockhall parish records.

Fremeaux of Kingsthorpe archives including James Fremeaux's merchant's account book 1751 - 1774 in Smyrna, Leghorn and Amsterdam and Amsterdam letter book 1794 - 1798. Estate accounts 1790 - 1802 for Kingsthorpe, Hannington, Dalscote in Pattishall, Rothersthorpe, Earls Barton.

Cooke family deeds and papers, Kingsthorpe and Earls Barton. Bills for building and fitting out Kingsthorpe hall 1774 - 1775. 18thC. letters and papers of Mrs Susannah Fremeaux.

Note: Certain catalogued items have been withdrawn by the family.

This catalogue is available on the National Access to Archives website.

(Further Thornton of Kingsthorpe items include the travel journals of the Rev. William Thornton to France and Scotland, 1828 and to Belgium and the Rhine 1860's with a family history and memoir 1866 and his journal 1853 - 1855, ref.X4937 and the diaries of Mary Susan Thornton 1866 - 1899, ref. YZ 2163 - 2180 and ZB 1722)'

Brockhall is listed as 'Brocole' in the Domesday Book, Brockhall remains a rural idyll. The Hall is a Fiori Musicali (Baroque style) music venue.

Richard Kendell has the following:
'The name Brockhall is said to mean badger hole or burrow.

This place seems to be Northamptonshire’s answer to Gretna Green. For some reason in the early 1700s people came from miles around with no apparent connection to the village to get married. If you have lost a marriage give Brockhall a look!

BROCKHALL PARISH (from 1874)

Is bounded on the north by Brington, on the east and south-east by Flore, on the south by Dodford. on the west by Norton, and on the north-west by Whilton. It contains 721 acres, the rateable value of which is £1363. Its population in 1801 was 70; in 1831, 58; in 1841, 59 ; in 1851, 62 ; in 1861, 54; and in 1871, 42. The gross estimated rental is £1581. The lordship, which contains about 850 acres, was inclosed in 1619-20, and is nearly all in the possession of the Rev. T. C. Thornton, the lord of the manor. The soil is a deep rich loam, and nearly the whole of the lordship is in permanent pasture. The parish is intersected by the western branch of the river Nene, the London and North-Western Railway, the old Roman road Watling Street, and the Grand Junction Canal.

Manor: At the time of the Domesday survey, the Earl of Morton had three virgates in Brocole and Misecote (Bridges says the lordship is usually called from the adjoining hamlet, Brockhole cum Muscot) which were valued at 40s., and had been the freehold of Leuric in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The manor was at this time in the hands of Ralph Wac or Wake, who left it to his son ; and in the reign of Henry III., Matthew Wake accounted for one small fee and a half, which he was certified to hold of Simon de Montford of the Honor of Leicester. In the twenty-fourth of Edward I. (1296), the vills of Brockhole and Mescote, except seven virgates of the fee of Warwick, were in the tenure of Joan de Lucien, and held of the heir of Robert de Keynes, who held of the Earl of Leicester, and the Earl of the king in capite; and by inquisition after the death of Sir Robert Tirwhit, in the third of Edward VI (1550), the manor of Brockhole and Muscot was found to be held of Humphrey Stafford, Esq , as of his manor of Dodford, by service of a knight s fee and a half, and two shillings rent The manor continued m the hands of the family of Tirwhit until the eighteenth of Elizabeth (1576), when Sir Robert Tirwhit, the then possessor, leased it out to William Walter and Henry Roper, who afterwards assigned their leases to Laurence Eyton of Norton. In the twenty-fourth of Queen Elizabeth (1582) Laurence Eyton and Edward his son purchased of William Tirwhit the manor of Brockhole, in which family it continued until 1625, when Edward Eyton and Laurence his son sold it to John Thornton, Esq. of Newnham, from whom it descended to Thomas Reeve Thornton, who died in 1862, and was succeeded by his son, the Rev. Thomas Cooke Thornton, the present owner.

The Village of Brockhall, which is small, is situated on rising ground commanding extensivev iews of a rich and fertile country, about 4 1/2 miles east of Daventry, 2 miles from the London and North-Western Station, Weedon, and about 3 miles W. by N. of Northampton.

The Church, dedicated to St Peter, is a small edifice, consisting of a nave and south aisle, porch and chancel, with an embattled tower containing three bells. It is partly in the Norman, Early English, and a style of architecture of a later date. The nave may be referred to the fourteenth century, and the chancel is modern. The interior is suitably fitted up. The nave is separated from the tower by a lofty pointed open arch, and from the chancel by a similar one. In the church are several monuments to the memory of various members of the Thornton family. Near the east end of the south aisle is a monumental arch with crockets, and finials, and flowers in the hollow mouldings, rudely executed, inclosing an inner trefoil arch; and beneath, on a slab, was an inscription for Peter de Thurlaston, rector in 1281, now nearly obliterated, the matrix of the brass only remaining. The living is a rectory in the deanery of Weedon, rated in the king's books at £13, 10s. 7d., and now valued at £245, in the patronage of the Rev. T. C. Thornton, and incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Kenworthy Brown, M.A.

The Rectory House stands north of the church, and is a pleasantly situated residence.

The Manor House, or Brockhall House, the seat of the Rev. Thomas Cooke Thornton, stands a little south of the church, on an elevated situation. It is a handsome edifice of Harleston stone, with three fronts, supposed to be built by the Eytons ; but much improved by the late possessor. The view from the hall is of a pleasing and diversified character.

Brown Rev. Thos. Kenworthy M.A. rector

Thornton Rev Thos. Cooke Manor House'

The Times online have details of the Old Rectory and Manor House when it was up for sale in 2006:

'Brockhall is as perfect a small estate village as can be imagined. Every building in the hamlet is listed. The noble Elizabethan Hall, seat of the Thorntons, has recently been converted into apartments, as have the stables.

Brockhall Manor, or Brockhall Manor Farm as it was known until recently, stands on the other side of the lane through the village and is as delicious a sight as any small manor house in England. The Brodies have been tenants here since 1900 and bought the house and 414 acres when the Thorntons sold nearly 40 years ago.

Like many long-tenanted houses, it remains remarkably unaltered. No fashionable Georgian sash windows ever intruded and the stone mullions and leaded windows remain, one engraved with the date 1781 to prove it. “Square leads for gentry, diamond for cottages and servants,” says James Brodie, pointing to the one diamond lattice window in a gable at the back.

As the village is effectively a cul-de-sac (the road to the north is gated), the fact that the manor stands close to the quiet lane through the village only adds to its charm. It makes a ravishing group with the lodge and a long barn all in matching stone. A large group of nesting boxes for doves is set in the walls on either side of the central archway. Intriguing, too, are the triangular ventilation slits and the four-step mounting block, inset with a dog kennel, that is entered through a shallow Tudor arch.

The house bears the date 1617 and is laid out on a compact U-shaped plan with the massive chimneybreasts often found at this date. Almost all the rooms are square, cosy in feel and with a double outlook. Interesting features are the vertical sliding shutters beneath the windows. “I thought they were unique, but they are found all over the Althorp estate,” Brodie says. The staircase opens from the back of the hall, but the upper half appears a later addition, as notches for joists show that there was once a floor beneath the upper window. There are many 17th-century cupboards that make use of every possible recess. These retain their original splayed hinges.

The manor’s 414 acres form a miniature estate with a stretch of the parkland that extends (in various ownerships) all round the village, as well as fields, woods and a well-established shoot. The one major challenge is to decide what to do with the large group of modern farm buildings behind the house. The Brodies are major commercial farmers and are moving their operations elsewhere.

On the eastern side of Northampton the local stone is paler. In the village of Yardley Hastings, hard by the Marquess of Northampton’s vast Castle Ashby estate, is one of the most delightful of all Queen Anne rectories, though as it is dated 1701 we should more correctly call it William and Mary. It is a masterpiece of the bricklayers’ art, built in a very pale pink brick subtly varied by a chequer pattern of burnt “ headers” (bricks laid end-on).

The mellowness is increased by the simplicity of the design. The only features are the segmental pediment over the front door in moulded brick and the scalloped tops to the first-floor windows. The brightness of the façade comes from the white-painted sashes and sash boxes, which are set flush with the brickwork — a practice banned in London in 1708 to reduce the risk of fire spreading. Other distinctive features are the blank panels and the pedimented dormers and the swooping gable ends.

Inside, the house is exceptionally well lit, a result of it mostly being just one room deep. The front door opens into a sumptuously oak-panelled entrance hall with a staircase leading out of one corner. This matches the house in date, but is said to have been removed from the Baroque Streatlam Castle in Co Durham, which was demolished in 1933.

The adjoining drawing room with fluted Ionic pilasters flanking the fireplace comes from Felling Hall, south of Newcastle. This work may have been carried out after the diocese sold the rectory in 1935 or done by the architect Sir Albert Richardson, champion traditionalist, who lived little more than 20 miles away at Ampthill and made alterations for Mr and Mrs Peter Richardson, who came to live here in 1949. Later it was the home of Major D. W. A Swannell, chief handicapper for the Jockey Club.

The Old Rectory also has pretty panelled bedrooms and an unusual attic that runs for almost the entire length of the 1702 house, making a spacious self-contained flat. The lower ground floor is also a realm unto itself, low-ceilinged for winter warmth with study and sitting room opening on to extensive gardens.

To the east a series of garden rooms enclosed by yew hedges have been created with vistas cleverly framing well-placed urns. As at Brockhall, the front door is approached along a paved path through a delightful front garden, so no cars will ever sully the best view of the house. When you arrive laden with shopping, you park conveniently by the kitchen door at the side.

Brockhall: £3 million, via Savills, 01865 269000. The Old Rectory: £2.25 million via Jackson-Stops & Staff'

Earliest Recorded Date of Construction: 01/01/1617 Additional Dates of Construction: Please see text above - there are a few hints of additions but few actual dates given. The Hall was designed by John Johnson in 1773 The Old Rectory was built in 1702 Architectural Period/Style: Norman, Early English and Elizabethan Architect (if known): Edward Eyton - Manor, John Johnson - Hall Type of Building e.g. Country House, Stately Home, Manor: Manor House, Hall and Old Rectory on Estate. Interesting Historical Facts or Connections: Many, please see above Main Material of Construction: Northamptonshire Stone Private/Public Access: Private Related Website: [Web Link] Rating: Landscape Designer (if known): Not listed Listed Building Status (if applicable): Not listed Admission Fee (if applicable): Not Listed Opening Hours (if applicable): Not listed

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