Lost Heritage

Location		Welton
Year demolished		1972
Reason		Converted into flats but subsequently derelict
See all images:		Gallery
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The Clarke family’s association with Welton parish dates back to the late sixteenth century. By the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries they had become prominent local gentry, acquiring estates such as Drayton Manor in nearby Daventry. Prior to the Clarke era, Welton’s manorial seat had shifted locations (a medieval moated manor fell to ruin by the fifteenth century), but the Clarke family would establish a new principal residence in the village. Their rising status culminated in Joseph Clarke – a member of the family – serving as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1758. It was in that year that Joseph Clarke embarked on building a grand new house for his family at Welton, marking the birth of Welton Place as a country seat.

Construction of the Georgian mansion (1758)

An early nineteenth-century engraving depicts Welton Place as a stately Georgian mansion set in landscaped parkland. The house was built in 1758 by Joseph Clarke, who intended it as a prestigious family seat. Constructed likely of brick with classically proportioned façades, the mansion featured a symmetrical layout with sash windows and was known locally as "The Big House."

It stood beside a man-made lake, around which Clarke planted rare cedar trees – picturesque features that are preserved on the grounds to this day. The interior spoke to the family’s wealth and taste: the drawing room was reportedly adorned with fine artworks, including paintings by Gainsborough and Canaletto. In its idyllic eighteenth-century heyday, Welton Place embodied both the architectural elegance and social prominence of the Clarke family.

Clarke ownership and lineage in the eighteenth century

Joseph Clarke never married and died in 1773, passing Welton Place to his brother, Richard Clarke of Nortoft. Richard himself died shortly thereafter in 1774, leaving the estate to his widow for the interim. The heir to the Clarke fortunes was Richard’s young grandson (via his daughter Frances), John Plomer, on the condition that he adopt the surname Clarke. In 1775 John Plomer duly changed his name to John Plomer Clarke by a private Act of Parliament in order to inherit his maternal family’s estates.

Once of age, John Plomer Clarke consolidated his ownership by purchasing Welton Place from Richard’s widow in 1804. He became lord of the manor at Welton and carried on the family’s influence – marrying Anne Maria Charlotte Nelthorpe in 1806 and serving as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1814. John Plomer Clarke was a noted county figure (he raised a local volunteer militia in 1813) and maintained Welton Place’s standing in the region. When he died in 1826 without issue, the house passed to his brother, another Richard Clarke, thus keeping Welton Place under Clarke family ownership into the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth-century developments and residents

Throughout the nineteenth century, Welton Place remained in the hands of the Clarke lineage, though there were brief intervals of non-occupation. Notably, from 1833 to 1851 the family was absent from Welton Place – the estate may have been let to others during that period – but they later returned as resident landlords.

The Victorian era saw the family continue to contribute to local society. One distinguished resident was Colonel Richard Trevor Clarke, a horticulturalist of repute and a scion of the Welton Clarke family. Colonel Clarke was a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Scientific Committee and even earned mention by Charles Darwin for his botanical work. In the gardens at Welton Place he bred new plant hybrids (some given the cultivar name “Weltonia”), exemplifying how the estate served not just as a home but as a centre of enlightened agricultural experimentation.

Despite these pursuits, the agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century and mounting family debts strained the Clarke finances. Portions of the estate were mortgaged or sold, yet the family did what they could for the village – even funding a local school – while struggling to maintain the grand house. By the turn of the twentieth century, Welton Place was still owned by the Clarkes, but changes lay ahead that would alter the use of the house.

Early twentieth-century occupancy and the Garrard tenancy

In the Edwardian period, Captain James Richard Plomer Clarke, JP – a descendant of the family – resided at Welton Place, and the mansion was his home in the early 1900s. Captain Clarke served as a Justice of the Peace and upheld the family’s social status locally. However, by 1906 the Clarke family chose to lease out Welton Place, likely due to financial pressures or changing lifestyles. That year the house was leased to Sebastian Henry Garrard, the head of the famed firm Garrard & Co. and Crown Jeweller to the British monarch.

Under Major Garrard’s tenancy (which lasted roughly from 1906 until the mid-1940s), Welton Place became the setting for high society gatherings. The Garrard family took an active part in village and county life: the Pytchley Hunt frequently met on the grounds of Welton Place, and elegant garden fêtes and flower shows were hosted on its lawns for charitable causes. Local lore even suggested that the Duke of York (the future King George VI) visited or stayed at Welton Place during this era, drawn by friendship with the Garrards, though no firm evidence has emerged to confirm a royal visit. Nonetheless, the presence of the Crown Jeweller and the associated social events added a final chapter of grandeur to Welton Place in the years before the Second World War.

Wartime decline and eventual demolition

The last member of the Clarke family to occupy Welton Place was Lieutenant Colonel Richard Alexander Owen Clarke, a career soldier and heir who returned to England after the war. By this time the great house had become difficult to maintain, and in 1947 the decision was made to convert Welton Place into multiple flats to make use of the space.

This mid-century adaptation altered the internal layout but could not secure the building’s long-term future. After centuries of continuous family ownership, the Clarke family finally sold the estate to developers in 1960. The once-stately mansion then fell vacant and into dereliction. Ultimately, Welton Place was deemed beyond saving; it was demolished in 1972, bringing an end to over two hundred years of Clarke residence. Today, a modern housing development stands on the former site of Welton Place, with the old ornamental lake and a few veteran cedar trees remaining as the last tangible echoes of the estate’s illustrious past.