Rudby Hall, Hutton Rudby,

Skutterskelfe Skutterskelfe is a civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England and lies to the north of the River Leven. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 129. The parish has a single Grade II* listed building, Rudb ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...

is a country house dating from 1838. Its origins are older but the present building was built for the 10th Viscount Falkland and his wife by the architect

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country ho ...

. The house is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

History

Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland inherited the Rudby estate from his aunt, Elizabeth Cary, Lady Amherst in 1830. At that time, the house was called Leven Grove. In the same year, Falkland married Lady Amelia FitzClarence, an illegitimate daughter of

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded ...

and his long-time mistress

Dorothea Jordan Dorothea Jordan, née Bland (21 November 17615 July 1816), was an Anglo-Irish actress, as well as a courtesan. She was the long-time mistress of Prince William, Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and the mother of ten illegitimate children by h ...

. On the King's death in 1837, Amelia, with her brothers and sisters, was among the main beneficiaries of her father's will. The Falklands had already commissioned

to build a new house on the site of the older mansion. The total cost was £16,000. The Falkland family retained ownership of the estate until the end of the 19th century. By this time the house had been renamed Skutterskelfe Hall. It was used subsequently as a family home, a

billet A billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. Historically, a billet was a private dwelling that was required to accept the soldier. Soldiers are generally billeted in barracks or garrisons when not on combat duty, alt ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and the headquarters of a chemicals company. Since the early 21st century it has reverted to use as a home and an events venue, and has seen a further change of name to Rudby Hall. Its first guest was reputedly the singer

Liam Gallagher William John Paul Gallagher (born 21 September 1972) is an English singer and songwriter. He achieved fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis from 1991 to 2009, and later fronted the rock band Beady Eye from 2009 to 2014, before start ...

, who described it as a "top gaff ithnice people". As of 2020, the hall is for sale.

Architecture and description

The architectural historian Jill Allibone considered the hall "a rather large, plain classical building", describing it as Salvin's first foray into the Italian villa style. The building is of two storeys and seven bays, and is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

. Pevsner notes the porch as a later addition. The hall is a Grade II* listed building. Its listing records the "lovingly restored high-quality

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

decoration" of the interior. Various subsidiary structures on the estate have their own Grade II listings; the pump house, the gate lodge, and walls, gate piers and a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

in the gardens.

Footnotes

Citations

Sources

* * * {{Cite book , last= Wright , first=G.N. , title=The Life and Reign of William the Fourth , year=1837 , location=London , publisher=Fisher, Son, & Co , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gAfVIVra9C4C Grade II* listed buildings in North Yorkshire Country houses in North Yorkshire Grade II* listed houses Anthony Salvin buildings Houses completed in 1838