Duffield Hall is a 17th-century country house situated in the

Amber Valley Amber Valley is a local government district with borough status in the east of Derbyshire, England, taking its name from the River Amber. Its council is based in Ripley. The district covers a semi-rural area lying to the north of the city of ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

and the former headquarters of the Derbyshire Building Society. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The manor of Duffield was granted by King Charles I to the Newton family who built a new mansion house there in the 1620s. The Newtons sold the house to Henry Coape,

High Sheriff of Derbyshire This is a list of Sheriffs of Derbyshire from 1567 until 1974 and High Sheriffs since. The ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around ...

in 1703. His granddaughter and heiress brought the estate to her husband Henry Porter. In the early 19th century he left the property to his kinsman Thomas Porter Bonell whose daughter married Sir Charles H Colville. After Colville's death, the house was sold to John Bell Crompton of Milford (High Sheriff in 1847) a Banker of Irongate, Derby. He died in 1860 and the estate was acquired by

Rowland Smith Rowland Smith (6 December 1826 – 24 February 1901) was an English Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1874. Life and career Smith was the son of Samuel George Smith, of Goldings, Hertfordshire and his wife Eug ...

. Member of Parliament for

South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The district covers the towns of Melbourne, Derbyshire, Melbourne and Swadlincote as well as numerous villages and hamlets such as Hilton, Derbys ...

1868-74 and High Sheriff 1877. Smith extensively restored and improved the house creating the present mansion of three storeys and five gabled bays. From 1908 until 1970 the house and estate were occupied by St Ronan's School. By 1928 it was a girls school only and in the 1960s there were 120 boarders and day-students enrolled. The school closed in 1970 and in 1977 the property was acquired by the Derbyshire Building Society for whom it was restored and extended by architects George Grey and Partners. The adjoining estate was sold for the St Ronans Road residential development. In 2013 planning permission was granted for a change of use to a single dwelling house, (B1 Office to C3 Residential) demolition of later additions and a new build of Bungalows and Courtyard Houses. Amber Valley Planning Application
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References

''Magna Britannia. Vol 5 Derbyshire'' (1817) p127. Gentry families of Derbyshire from British History Online

English Heritage, Images of England. Photograph and detailed architectural description ''Magna Britannia. Vol 5 Derbyshire'' (1817). Manor of Duffield from British History Online
{{coord, 52.9833, -1.4871, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II* listed buildings in Derbyshire

See also

References