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The Valley of Walton Hall has a long history stretching back into the pre-historic era. In Roman times there was a considerable settlement and in mediaeval times there were Villages on either side of the River Dene. The site of the present village being known as Walton Mordaunt, while the field to the south of the Hall, still known as Old Town, was the site of the deserted village of Walton d'Eivile. It is recorded that there were thirty three cottages there in 1729. In the XVI Century the first Mordaunts, Robert, came to Walton when he married the local heiress Barbara l'Estrange. His family lived at Turvey in Bedfordshire, where there are some fine XVI Century tombs of the Lords Mordaunt. The descendants of the Turvey branch of the family became the Earls of Peterborough. By the end of the XVI Century the population of a Walton d'Eivile had declined, partly because of the Black Death and partly because of changing family practices. Soon all that remained of the village was the manor house, built on the site of the present Hall, and a ruined church, built on the site of the present chapel (the font that stands in the present chapel dates back to those days). This history of the Mordaunt family can be traced in the stained glass windows located in the main house. Sir l'Estrange Mordaunt was created by the first baronet in 1611, having distinguished himself in campaigns on the continent. The title being passed down from father to son in a direct line until the present century, when Sir Osbert Mordaunt died without an heir. In the XVIII Century the manor house and the church were rebuilt in the classical style. It is this house which is described in the book the Old House at Walton. The family owned several thousand acres of land and several farms, and most of those who lived in the village worked on the estate or the farms. The head of the family for many generations represented the country as a Member of Parliament. Sir John Mordaunt, whose portrait now hangs above the stairs in the Hall, and whose childhood and adult life is described in the book, was a fine character, who was widely mourned when he tragically died after a shooting accident in 1845. It was Sir John's son, Sir Charles Mordaunt, the tenth baronet who rebuilt the house to the design of Sir Gilbert Scott in 1862 - 63. The basic shape of the house remained the same, but it was extended and refaced with the edition of the stained glass windows, the towers and the conservatory. Tradition has it Sir Charles was greatly encouraged by his mother, Caroline Sophia, whose portrait also hangs over the stairs. He divorced his first wife Harriet Moncreiffe after a celebrated case in which the Prince of Wales was called to the witness box. By his second wife, Mary Louise Chalmondeley, he had five daughters and one son, Sir Osbert who died unmarried. The second daughter, Irene, married Sir Richard Hamilton, and it was their son Sir Richard who inherited the house and the surrounding estate, and who still lives with his family in the village. Mary Louisa, Lady Mordaunt, was a widow for fifty years. She remained at Walton Hall after the death of her son, continuing to live in a wing of the Hall when it was occupied by the army during the second world war. She died in 1947. For some years the Hall was leased by a girls school, St Vincents, and was converted into a hotel and leased to Danny la Rue, before becoming the complex it is today. The 'Old House at Walton', a book by Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, is available from Walton Hall reception. |
