Fineshade Abbey
Northamptonshire
| Location | Fineshade | ||
| Year demolished | 1956 | ||
| Reason | Wartime damage after use as POW camp | ||
| See all images: | Gallery | ||
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Relatively little is known about Fineshade Abbey, one of the many accomplished country houses that lived largely quiet and undramatic lives. Set within a heavily wooded part of Northamptonshire, its secluded position most likely provided its name.
The medieval site
The site originally contained Castle Hymel, which was demolished around the beginning of King John’s reign, circa 1200, by Richard Engayne the elder, Lord of Blatherwycke. Engayne established an Augustinian priory slightly to the north-west, dedicated to St Mary of Castle-Hymel, although it soon became known as Fineshade. Over time, the Engayne family added further lands, creating an estate that extended nearly four miles to Blatherwycke.
For more than three centuries the priory continued its work. There were allegations of excess in the mid-fourteenth century and a fire around 1420, but the community otherwise remained active until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Dissolution and early post-monastic ownership
Richard Harrington, prior from 1526, was among the minority willing to accept Henry VIII’s authority. He and six canons acknowledged the king’s supremacy on 26 August 1534. Their submission did not protect the house. On Palm Sunday 1536 Humphrey Stafford wrote from Blatherwycke to Thomas Cromwell to request that the priory and its estate be granted to him, and in the same letter he also asked that Worspring Priory in Somerset be given to his father.
The final surrender of Fineshade came in 1545 under Prior Thomas Luffenham, who received a pension of 10 marks. The property passed to John, Lord Russell, who promptly sold it to Sir Robert Kirkham. The Kirkhams, formerly substantial landowners around Warmington in Cambridgeshire, converted the monastic buildings into a residence. Their earlier links with Warmington explain how stone from the demolition of Fotheringhay Castle, around 1625, was incorporated into the chapel at Fineshade.
The eighteenth-century transformation
The estate remained with the Kirkhams until 1748, when it was sold to the trustees of William Payne King. In 1750 he undertook significant alterations, including the creation of a notable dining room decorated with stucco and carved timberwork. On his death the estate passed to his widow, Anne Maria. She married the Hon. Edwin Sandys on 26 January 1769, and he sold Fineshade later that year to the Hon. John Monckton, son of the 1st Viscount Galway and half-brother of General Monckton.
One possibility, given family connections, is that the distinguished dining room was designed during Monckton’s ownership by James Paine, who was then working for Monckton’s brother at Serlby Hall1.
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century ownership
Fineshade Abbey became one of several important estates owned by the Monckton family in Staffordshire and Yorkshire. It passed to Edward Henry Cradock Monckton and then to George Edward Monckton. Financial pressures began when Edward distributed substantial sums to his thirteen children, reducing the capital base of the estate. By the 1930s economic difficulties forced the sale of timber and land, leaving a reduced holding that could no longer support the house. George nevertheless maintained the buildings and sold Fineshade in good condition during the 1930s.
Post-Monckton sale and the interwar transition (1920 to 1929)
Fineshade Abbey first returned to the market around 1920, following the end of its long association with the Monckton family. The estate is consistently recorded as being available during this period, with intermittent sale notices reflecting the difficult post-war country-house market.
Although some secondary accounts suggest a sale in 1927 or 1928, contemporary evidence indicates that the purchaser, Richard Atherton d’Anyers Willis, completed the transaction in December 1929. This began nearly two decades of ownership by the d’Anyers Willis family.
The d’Anyers Willis years (1929 to 1947)
Although Richard d’Anyers Willis held Fineshade for only a few years before his death, the family retained the estate until 1947. Newspaper evidence shows that the house remained socially active during the 1930s, most notably when it hosted the Fitzwilliam Hunt Ball in April 1935, reported in detail by the *Peterborough Standard*. This suggests that the family maintained the house in good order and continued to present it as a suitable venue for county society.
The wartime role of the building remains unclear. Press records offer no firm evidence of formal military or hospital use, although domestic activity evidently continued. In 1942 Mrs d’Anyers Willis advertised locally for a pony-drawn grass mower, which confirms both residency and ongoing upkeep during the conflict.
The family placed the estate on the market in 1947, and the impending sale was noted in Country Life in November of that year.
Purchase by Dr H. A. Chodak Gregory (1947 to 1949)
The next owner, Dr Henry A. Chodak Gregory, was a figure of considerable interest. Born in Tashkent, Turkistan, he became a British citizen in 1914 to serve in the First World War and was mentioned in dispatches in 1918. He appears to have undertaken significant modernisation, and by 1950 the house had acquired central heating, almost certainly installed during his tenure.
His ownership was short-lived. By 1949 he was bankrupt, a case widely reported both locally and nationally. His assets, including his herd of cattle, were dispersed, and the bankruptcy forced the sale of Fineshade Abbey and its estate.
One final vignette survives from this period. In September 1949 the house hosted the wedding reception of two estate employees, Iris Codd and Eric Butler, reported by the Sleaford Gazette. Dr Gregory, whose stewardship was coming to an involuntary close, gave the bride away.
Interim ownership and the Scarborough connection (circa 1949 to 1951)
Following the bankruptcy sale, Fineshade Abbey appears to have passed briefly to an owner from Scarborough, although only a single newspaper reference supports this. No evidence indicates substantial occupation or alteration, suggesting a transitional phase typical of many country houses in the uncertain post-war property climate.
Sale to Corby Development Corporation (1951)
By 1951 the estate had been acquired by the Corby Development Corporation as part of a wider programme of land assembly for the expansion of Corby New Town. The house itself was not required for the scheme, and its long-term survival was effectively compromised by the purchase.
Final private ownership and demolition (1955 to 1956)
The Corporation sold the house, now detached from its associated lands, in 1955 to Mr White for £6,300. The modest price reflected both the depressed value of large houses at mid-century and the uncertainty surrounding its future.
Demolition followed in 1956, bringing an end to the long and varied history of Fineshade Abbey. The combination of wartime damage, the loss of a viable estate structure, and the shifting economics of post-war Britain all contributed to its destruction.
Surviving elements
Although the main house is gone, fragments remain. A carved pedimented doorcase survives in the library of the Royal Society of Arts in London. On the site itself, an open lawn marks the former footprint of the house, while the surviving stables and ancillary buildings have been adapted for new uses, leaving yet another country estate without its architectural centrepiece.1 - 'An Inspector Recalls' - Derek Sherborn (2003) - pg.184
Thank you to M. Hales for providing additional information on the twentieth-century history and ownership.