Elton Hall

Elton Hall stands in Elton, Cambridgeshire, as a Grade I listed country house. The River Nene flows through its 3,800-acre estate, which the Proby family has owned since 1660. The building mixes parts from the 15th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, showing how successive owners shaped it. Sir Richard Sapcote built the earliest section in the 15th century, and later owners added a chapel, wings and Gothic touches. The Victorian gardens were restored in the 20th and 21st centuries and now include a knot garden, a rose garden and a Gothic orangery. The hall’s history is tied to notable figures such as Sir John Sapcote, who added the chapel described in Camden’s Britannia. John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, married Anne Sapcote, linking the house to a prominent family. Sir Thomas Proby rebuilt much of the house between 1662 and 1689, while the 1st Earl of Carysfort remodelled it in the Gothic style. Later, Granville Leveson Proby employed architect Henry Ashton to refashion parts of the building in the 19th century. Inside, visitors find the Marble Hall and main staircase designed by Ashton, recreating an 18th-century style. The drawing room, once the medieval chapel, is the largest room and has an 18th-century ceiling with Ashton’s decoration. The dining room features Gothic windows copied from the old chapel, and the main library holds a large collection. The chapel, formed from the undercroft of the Sapcotes’ chapel, still shows its original vaulting. Outside, the gardens and orangery reflect the layered history of the estate.