Moulton Hall

Moulton Hall, near Richmond, Yorks.

The hall was rebuilt on an ancient site in the 1600’s for Leonard Smithson, who was succeeded in 1650 by his son Christopher Smithson. The latter’s son George Smithson was MP for the North Riding in the First Protectorate Parliament in 1654 and briefly MP for Northallerton in 1659. On his death in 1692 the estate was sold by his widow to Sir Mark Milbanke of Halnaby.

His descendant Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Baronet sold it to Colonel Sir James Charles Dalbiac to pay the dowry when Sir Ralph’s only daughter Anne Isabella Milbanke disastrously married the poet Lord Byron in 1815. Sir Charles sold it in turn in 1836 to the Sanderson family to provide a dowry for his only daughter, Susanna, who married James Innes-Ker, 6th Duke of Roxburghe that year.

The property was then occupied by members of the Sanderson family for the remainder of the 1800s, including Michael Sanderson, who died in 1850, Matthew Sanderson, who died in 1854, John Sanderson, who died in 1860, Dennison Sanderson (fl. 1863, 1871), Henry Matthew Sanderson (fl. 1890), Henry Middleton Sanderson (fl.1906).

The National Trust acquired the house in 1966 and promotes its “beautiful carved staircase” as its main feature. It is open to the public on a limited basis by arrangement with the tenant. See https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/moulton-hall

The current tenants of Moulton Hall are John Eccles, 2nd Viscount Eccles and his wife, the Baroness Eccles of Moulton.

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Smithsons’ Field, Radley College, Oxford

The two new pitches at the extreme north end of the playing fields, adjacent to Little Wood, were named Smithsons' Field in recognition of Bertram Harold Smithson and his son, Malcolm, who were consecutively Head Groundsman from February 1946 to October 1995.

They were the father and younger brother respectively of Gerald Arthur Smithson, ex Yorkshire, Leicestershire and England cricketer, who was himself Head Groundsman and cricket professional at nearby Abingdon School from 1958 until his death in 1970.

The cricket grounds (including Smithson Fields) have been described as ‘arguably one of the best in the country’.

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