Finedon Hall facts for kids
Finedon Hall is a large country house in Finedon, Northamptonshire, England. It was built in the Victorian era. This special building is protected as a Grade II listed building, which means it's important and should be preserved.
The Story of Finedon Hall
The main part of Finedon Hall was built in the 1600s or 1700s. A man named William Harcourt Isham Mackworth Dolben (1806–1872) made many changes to it. Stones around the house show different building times: 1855, 1851, 1856, and 1859. We don't know for sure who the architect was, but it might have been E. F. Law from Northampton. Mr. Mackworth Dolben was also an amateur architect who loved designing.
There are other cool buildings on the estate too. These include the Museum Tower, the Bell Tower, and the Old Chapel. They are also Grade II listed, just like the main house. The gardens around the hall were designed with help from Humphry Repton, a famous landscape designer. The estate also had a well-known monument called the Volta Tower, but it fell down in 1951.
Who Owned Finedon Hall?
For a long time, from the early 1400s to the 1700s, the Mulso family owned Finedon Hall. When the last Mulso family member, Tanfield Mulso, passed away, the house went to his daughter, Anne.
Anne married Sir Gilbert Dolben, and the house stayed in the Dolben family until 1837. After that, it went to Sir John English Dolben's daughter, Frances. She married William Harcourt Isham Mackworth, who then took the name Dolben.
Sadly, both of his sons died young. The older son, William Digby Mackworth Dolben, drowned in 1863 while serving on a ship called HMS Volta. The younger son, Digby Mackworth Dolben, who was a poet, drowned in the River Welland in 1867.
After their deaths, the estate went to their sister, Ellen. When Ellen died in 1912, the property was split up and sold.
Finedon Hall's Later Years
In 1936, during World War II, Finedon Hall was used by the Free French forces. It became a place where injured Allied soldiers could recover. Charles de Gaulle, a very important French leader, even visited the hall at least once.
Colonel Pierre Mallinger ran this recovery center. Later, he bought the hall and used it as a research center to study tropical diseases. After Colonel Mallinger passed away in 1971, the hall was sold to Geoffrey St Clair Wade.
Mr. St Clair Wade had plans to develop Finedon Hall, but they didn't happen. Over time, the house started to fall into disrepair. Luckily, the Ancient Monuments Society helped save the hall. Today, Finedon Hall has been changed into apartments where people live.
