Arbury Hall () is a Grade I listed

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

in Nuneaton,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England, and the ancestral home of the Newdigate family, later the Newdigate-Newdegate and Fitzroy-Newdegate ( Viscount Daventry) families.

History

The hall is built on the site of the former Arbury Priory in a mixture of Tudor and 18th-century

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

, the latter being the work of Sir Roger Newdigate from designs by Henry Keene. The 19th-century author George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) was born on one of the estate farms in 1819, the daughter of the estate's land agent. In 1911, Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate Newdegate erected, at Arbury Hall, a monument to the memory of George Eliot.

Description

The hall is set in of parkland.Cooke, George Willis. ''George Eliot: A Critical Study of her Life, Writings and Philosophy''. Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004

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In the arts

George Eliot immortalised Arbury Hall as "Cheverel Manor" in '' Scenes of Clerical Life'', where it is the setting for "Mr Gilfil's Love Story". The film '' Angels & Insects'' (1995) was shot entirely at Arbury Hall and within the grounds. Arbury Hall was also used as the fictional Hoxley Manor in the BBC TV series '' Land Girls'' (2009).

Ownership

* Edmund Anderson (1530–1605), who demolished the priory and built Arbury Hall. Custodians of Arbury Hall include:Wilkinson, R. (2006) Chronicles of the Newdegates and the Three Manors (1st Edition) Athena Press
* Sir Edmund Anderson (1567–1586) *John Newdegate (1586–1587) *Sir John Newdegate (1587–1610) * John Newdigate (1610–1642) * Sir Richard Newdigate, 1st Baronet (1642–1665) * Sir Richard Newdigate, 2nd Baronet (1665–1710) * Sir Richard Newdigate, 3rd Baronet (1710–1727) * Sir Edward Newdigate, 4th Baronet (1727–1734) * Sir Roger Newdigate, 5th Baronet (1734–1806) * Francis Parker Newdigate (1806–1835) * The Rt Hon. Charles Newdigate-Newdegate (1835–1887) * Lt Gen. Sir Edward Newdigate-Newdegate (1887–1902) * Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate-Newdegate (1902–1936) *The Hon. Mrs Lucia FitzRoy-Newdegate (1936–1950) * Francis Humphrey Maurice FitzRoy Newdegate, 3rd Viscount Daventry (1950–2000) *James Edward FitzRoy Newdegate, 4th Viscount Daventry (2000–)

References

External links