Milton Hall

Milton Hall stands in a large park about five kilometres south of Peterborough. Built in 1594, it is the biggest private house in Cambridgeshire and was long the home of the Fitzwilliam family. Some of the oak trees in the park date from a Tudor deer park that stood here before the house. The building is listed at Grade I and its gardens at Grade II*. The Fitzwilliams bought the manor in 1502 and began to shape the grounds soon after. The house has been shaped by many notable figures. The third William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy of Ireland, started the Hall in the 1590s. Later, Sir Christopher Wren married a Fitzwilliam heiress. Humphry Repton advised on the park in 1791. During the Second World War the stables housed the Czechoslovak Army and the Special Operations Executive trained here before parachuting into France. Daphne du Maurier visited as a child and later said Manderley in Rebecca came from memories of Milton. Visitors today see a grand house set in wide lawns and mature trees. The golf club’s course winds through the park, and several holes run past the Hall. Views of the building open from the drive and from the pleasure grounds. The walled enclosures from the 18th century still stand in the south garden. The scale and quiet of the place recall the days when the Fitzwilliams hunted here in winter.