The House
One of Britain’s finest Adam Houses Newby Hall, the family home of Mr & Mrs Richard Compton, is one of England’s renowned Adam houses and an exceptional example of 18th century interior decoration. Built in the 1690s by Sir Christopher Wren the house was later enlarged and adapted by John Carr and subsequently Robert Adam.
The House is now open to visitors by booking a guided tour, the hour long house tours take you around the ground floor and first floor rooms. Our knowledgeable guides welcome any questions about the house and its history.
To book a time slot for visiting the house, please click here
The Downton Abbey similarities (series one)...
- Lord Grantham is the owner, the same name as Newby Hall’s owner in the 1800s
- Matthew Crawley (the heir) is a solicitor in Ripon and gets there on his bike. Ripon 4 miles away from Newby
- When an undertaker was required, he came from Thirsk. Around 17 miles away
- The local blacksmith was working in ‘Skelton village’. Skelton is the village at the end of Newby’s drive
- The staff went to church in Easingwold, albeit on foot! Around 10 miles away
- Lady Sybil went to the election results in Ripon – 4 miles away from Newby
- Lord Grantham’s eldest daughter, who will inherit if she marries Matthew is Lady Mary. Lady Mary Robinson, daughter of 3rd Lord Grantham and inherited Newby Hall on marriage
- Do let us know if you spot any other similarities!
Other Fascinating Newby Facts……
- Lord Grantham, an ancestor of the Comptons, gave away America! As Foreign Secretary he drew up the Treaty giving America its independence.
- A Royal IOU (from King Charles II to Robert Vyner, another ancestor) hangs on the wall leading upto the Billiard Room. It was never paid and is now worth about £400 million! Robert Vyner commissioned the Crown Jewels in 1660 – a replica set is on display in the Entrance Pavilion.
- There are 90 varieties of Cornus (Dogwoods) at Newby. There is also an apple tree unique to Newby – the Strawberry Pippin.
- Until 1933 the magnificent gardens were a nine hole golf course.
- The Comptons have the rare honour of being granted permission to add the Royal Lion to their Standard. Henry VII granted this to Sir William Compton in 1512.
- Newby’s miniature railway has carried over a million passengers since it started running – all on time!
- Bishop Compton is the only Bishop to have crowned a monarch – William and Mary in 1688. He also provided Newby’s first Head Gardener, long before the family had any connections with the House.
- In World War II Newby was reserved for the Royal Family in case of evacuation from London in a plan called the Coats Mission.
- Newby has the gate from Newgate Prison, through which the famous highwayman Dick Turpin’s rival Jack Sheppard escaped.
- Newby Hall has a collection of over 100 chamber pots, some dating from 1500s.
Explore Newby Hall
The Entrance Hall
The Dining Room
The Library
The Tapestry Room
The Statue Gallery
The Billiards Room
The Circular Room
Christ the Consoler
The Entrance Hall
The architecture of Ancient Rome inspired the decorative motifs used in Robert Adam’s neo-classical design for William Weddell’s Entrance Hall. The exquisite plasterwork by the famous and most skilled stuccoist Joseph Rose includes panels of martial trophies.
The mahogany doors are of a particularly high quality and it is interesting to note how the quality of detail and door furniture varies on the doors throughout the house. The painting above the fireplace is St Margaret by Annibale Carracci (1560 – 1609) and the floor is of Sicilian marble.
The chamber organ was designed by Robert Adam’s older rival James ‘Athenian’ Stuart, while the organ itself was made by Thomas Haxby of York. The organ is still played today.
The tables are all by the Yorkshire-born designer and cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779), as are the set of elegant hall chairs. The chairs are listed as being in the Entrance Hall in the inventory of contents made in 1792 by Thomas Chippendale the younger when Newby passed from William Weddell to Lord Grantham.
The Dining Room
The Dining Room was designed in 1807 by the 3rd Lord Grantham around some furniture from his father’s house, the other Yorkshire Newby now known as Baldersby Park, near Thirsk.
He copied the frieze from one drawn by his father for that house in 1785, and the chair rail relates to the vine leaf pattern on the two side tables, and the pair of pedestal vases. Lord Grantham re-used three of the alabaster urns with lamps in them that Robert Adam had designed for the niches in William Weddells’ dining room (now the Library); but he had them repainted to match his father’s urns. These and the set of chairs were made by Thomas Chippendale for William Weddell. The chairs are similar to those at Harewood House and Nostell Priory.
The colour for this room, redecorated in 1980, was taken from an original drawing by Lord Grantham, and found in an old folio by the current owner’s mother, Jane Compton.
The Library
In William Weddell’s day this room was the dining room. Robert Adam designed the original decoration in 1767-9 in French grey, black and buff colours, and the richness of the plaster shows the work of Joseph Rose.
The ends of the room are apsidal with impressive columns, their Corinthian capitals crisply carved in wood. In the western apse stands the fourth Adam alabaster urn, originally intended to cast light over a carved sideboard; the other three urns are in the Dining Room.
The 3rd Lord Grantham made the room into his library in 1807 and later generations have kept it that way. The French commode under the alabaster urn is of the Louis XV period, as is the bureau-plât in tulipwood and kingwood between the windows. On either side are early nineteenth-century library steps and a rosewood library table. Above the fireplace on the overmantel stand a charming French clock inscribed ‘du Tertre’, two Meissen plates, and four Chinese bottles.
The Tapestry Room
Here, in what had been the entrance hall of the original house, Adam created a drawing room specifically for William Weddells’ set of Gobelins tapestries which he ordered in Paris in 1763.
One of only six sets made for English patrons they are now the only set remaining in its entirety in the setting for which it was made. The subjects, ‘The Loves of the Gods’ were from designs by François Boucher, the favourite painter of Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour. Woven under the management of Jacques Neilson, they were delivered in 1767, travelling to England in the French Ambassador’s diplomatic bag in order to avoid import duty!
The entire room, completed in 1776, has a coherent design scheme: the English Axminster carpet and ceiling were both designed by Adam and Thomas Chippendale was commissioned to provide the sofas and chairs, designed to fit around the room under the tapestries. They are the only pieces of Chippendale furniture known to have retained their original upholstery and covers.
The Statue Gallery
Although John Carr of York was the architecture for the south wing, Robert Adam fitted into it his greatest creation at Newby, the Statue Gallery: two square rooms with a central rotunda, in the style of a Roman house.
Adam’s concept for this sculpture gallery can be traced to his sketches of Roman ruins at Tivoli and to the influence of Clerisseau’s drawings and Piranesi’s archaeological plans. He also designed the pedestals, plinths and stove cases which conceal a heating system.
Entering from the Library (then the dining room) Weddell and his friends enjoyed the sculptures by lamp and candelight, which must have made them look as if they were in an ancient temple – which was the desired effect. Weddell is thought to have bought his entire collection from the dealer Thomas Jenkins in Rome.
Newby’s is probably the finest collection of Roman statuary in private hands in Britain; it consists mainly of a mixture of Roman pieces from the first century BC to the second century AD, with a few eighteenth century copies. Whilst it is clear that many have been heavily restored and even completed, this was a perfectly acceptable practice in the eighteenth century.
Weddell’s passion for classical sculpture led to nineteen chests of sculpture being transported to Yorkshire. To him and his fellow collectors the statuary symbolised refined taste and noble, classical virtues.
The Billiards Room
No other room at Newby underlines the contrast between Georgian and Victorian life in the house so forcibly as the Billiards Room. It now contains portraits and relics of the Vyner family.
Chief among them is the picture of Sir Robert Vyner and his family by John Michael Wright, the original of which was exhibited in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Sir Robert, the leading goldsmith of his day, was commissioned to remake the regalia destroyed by Cromwell, for the Coronation of King Charles II in 1661. Excellent replicas of the regalia he made are on display in the Entrance Pavilion.
On the side table is a circular portrait of Lady Mary’s youngest son, Frederick, who was murdered by Greek Brigands in 1870. It was as a memorial to him that his mother commissioned William Burges to build the Church of Christ the Consoler in the park.
The Circular Room
It is possible that William Belwood, York architect and surveyor who frequently built to the designs of Carr and Adam (Belwood was a protegè of Robert Adam), designed this beautiful room which acted as both an ante-room to the Print Bedroom or a morning room.
It provided access for the servants via a concealed door and guests would have caught their first view of Newby’s fine park from here. According to tradition the decorative grotesque work on the walls and ceiling was done by William Weddell’s wife Elizabeth Ramsden who was a friend of Joshua Reynolds. The subjects of the ceiling paintings are derived from paintings found at Herculaneum and Pompeii during the excavations in the mid-eighteenth century.
Christ the Consoler
The extraordinary exuberance of Christ the Consoler makes an immediate impact on the visitor. Built in 1871-76, it stands as an extravagant memorial to a young man, Frederick Vyner, who was murdered by brigands while travelling in Greece.
His mother used the money collected for his ransom to commission the famous Victorian architect, William Burges, to build this church in the grounds of her home at Newby Hall. Standing inside the gates of the park, and surrounded by huge beech trees, the outside is impressive, with its lofty spire, pinnacles and fine rose window. The design is based on medieval French church architecture, but with Burges’s unique interpretation.
The interior is wonderfully rich and colourful, with each window containing stained glass in strong and vibrant colours. Every detail here repays attention: the carvings on the corbels and on the organ case, the coloured sculptures over the chancel arch depicting the Ascension, the carvings of the chancel stalls and the fine pavement. Colours and details become progressively more opulent as you approach the east end. Burges employed the best craftsmen of the day to work here, and everywhere you look there are examples of their skill. Excellent carving in stone and wood, lovely metalwork, and the finest quality sculpture enrich the walls. Everything is on a magnificent scale; the effect is almost overwhelming. And yet, for all its splendour, you cannot forget the tragic circumstances out of which this church was built.
The Church is open daily during daylight hours.
The History of Newby Hall
My family has lived here since 1748 when Newby was bought for my ancestor, William Weddell (1736 – 1792) through a legacy from his great-uncle Thomas Weddell of Earswick. Thomas Weddell was one of thousands who made money through investments withdrawn before the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720 and through his well paid, salaried position as Paymaster to the Navy. It is known that the South Sea Company had significant financial involvement with the slave trade. It is not known to what extent this contributed to Thomas Weddell’s wealth but we do know that what was acceptable in the 1700s is abhorrent now.
Newby is a modern and inclusive business and we have supported the BAME community hosting 3 resident Zimbabwean stone carvers each year enjoyed by many hundreds of thousands of visitors over the last 15 years. Another recent example is, in conjunction with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, developing an outreach programme within the Asian communities of Bradford. There is lots more we can do and we look forward to renewing our links.
The past is something we cannot change. We need to recognise it, take serious note and learn.
Richard Compton
The early history of Newby leaves gaps from the thirteenth century, when it was recorded as the property of the Nubie family, who took their name from the place, to the seventeenth century when Newby belonged to Sir Jordan Crossland, appointed Governor of Scarborough Castle by Charles II. His son sold the estate to Sir Edward Blackett, who had become Member of Parliament for Ripon in 1689. Blackett demolished the old house, which stood much closer to the river, and built the main block of the present house during the 1690s using Sir Christopher Wren.
Celia Fiennes visited Newby on her tour of the north in 1697 and recorded in her diary,
‘This was the finest house I saw in Yorkshire’.
On Blackett’s death, Newby passed to his son and then to his son’s nephew, who sold it in 1748 to the Weddell family, my ancestors.
Newby and Weddell
The next twenty-five years were to see great changes at Newby. William Weddell must have been a man of great taste and knowledge, and indeed was a prominent member of the Dilettanti Society. He made the Grand Tour in 1765-6 and soon after his return to England made contact with most of the leading neo-classical architects – Carr, Chambers, Wyatt, James Stuart and, of course, Robert Adam. Weddell’s intention was to alter and enlarge the house for his classical sculpture (he had nineteen chests from Rome) and for the set of Gobelin tapestries he had ordered in 1766.
John Carr probably added the two wings to the east of the house and remodelled much of the main block at this time, turning the house around and rebuilding the three central bays of the east elevation. If Carr planned the Statue Gallery in its original form it was not to Weddell’s entire satisfaction because Robert Adam was commissioned in 1767 to complete the galleries and to decorate the Tapestry Room and some of the interior of the house. How Weddell must have loved the beauty and elegance of the result!
Externally the cupola on the roof of the original house was removed and a local architect, William Belwood, Robert Adam’s foreman, was commissioned to add the porch to the east front – now the main entrance. Belwood also designed the fine stables north of the house, as well as the main entrance lodges in Skelton.
Lord Grantham’s Influence
Weddell died in 1792 without children and Newby passed to his cousin, Thomas Philip Robinson, who changed his name to Weddell, although he had already succeeded his father and become the 3rd Lord Grantham. Grantham felt that perhaps the only drawback of Weddell’s beautiful house was the lack of a large, sunny sitting room, and the library was too small for all his books. He therefore decided to turn Adam’s south-facing dining room into a library and build a new dining room on the north-west corner of the house. An amateur architect himself (he later became the first President of the RIBA), much of the design of the so-called Regency Dining Room is attributable to him. In 1833 his aunt Amabel died and he inherited from her the Earldom of de Grey, and Wrest Park in Bedfordshire.
Newby and the Vyners
Lord Grantham’s younger daughter Mary married Henry Vyner of Gautby in Lincolnshire, and Newby was given to Lady Mary soon after her marriage. In keeping with the period, she seems to have had little respect for elegance and classical architecture, yet she commissioned William Burges to build one of the finest Victorian churches in Yorkshire, to stand in the park at Newby in commemoration of her son Frederick, murdered by brigands in Greece. Burges also designed the forecourt piers to the main entrance gates to the house, and placed the fine seat at the end of the statue walk in the gardens.
Lady Mary’s son Robert added the Victorian Wing and the Billiards Room above the Regency Dining Room, (perhaps marring the fine proportions of the house). This wing is none-the-less a period piece, the more marked as it stands in total contrast to the graceful elegance of the rest of the house. Newby then passed to Robert’s daughter Mary, my great grandmother, who lived here during the First World War and gave it to my grandfather in 1921.
The Garden
My grandfather’s main contribution during his tenure was the garden. He wrote at the time, ‘I found I had inherited an exceptionally beautiful home but no garden to speak of – a lovely picture but no frame – I was determined to rectify this’. First he planned the great double herbaceous borders, flanked by hedges of yew, as a magnificent vista to link the south front with the river below. Off this main axis he planned a series of formal gardens, each to show plants at their best for every season of the year. The gardens he designed over fifty years cover twenty-five acres and are a major contribution to twentieth-century gardening.
Newby Today
The legacy he left to my parents was a daunting one in terms of showing the best of Newby to the public whilst retaining an acceptable degree of privacy for the family – the house needed total restoration and redecoration and everything was in the wrong place! They soon decided to move into the north wing of the house and keep the northern part of the gardens for themselves, thus enabling visitors to enter the house through the front door and have a complete tour of the main rooms and bedrooms without retracing their steps, or ‘treading on their toes’.
This meant moving the car park from the fine stables (where it spoiled the view) to a more central position surrounded by trees. A connecting road had to be built, and then an entrance pavilion to house an entrance area and the Newby Shop. Next the Garden Restaurant and Grantham Room followed (for booked parties), sited in a sunny corner of the kitchen gardens nearby.
In 1980, the Year of the Child, they planned the Adventure Gardens for children, within easy reach of the restaurant. Finally, they decided to extend the 10¼ inch-gauge miniature railway to run through the gardens alongside the river. The redecoration of the house has now been completed, with great knowledge and flair by my mother, and my father has left us with as complete a garden as one ever can be with wonderful vistas, colour schemes and a rich horticultural collection. This Garden management baton has been taken up by my wife Lucinda following my father’s sad death in November 2009. Lucinda has adapted the gardens – an adaptation that has included a re-planting of the main borders and overseeing the restoration of the Rock Garden.
In these projects we have received financial help from the Historic Buildings Council, the Countryside Commission and the then English Tourist Board, but the cost has been high and there is no profit for us – except in the knowledge that what we have done provides much pleasure for thousands of visitors each year. Reward for our efforts has also come from the British Tourist Authority, which 1979 acknowledged the outstanding contribution made by Newby Hall and Gardens to British tourism and in 1983 gave Newby an award for the best restored house and garden. In 1986 and 2019 Newby Gardens were further honoured, receiving the HHA/Christies Garden of the Year Award, the only garden to have won the award twice. More recently the winner of Yorkshire in Bloom 2008 and Gold Awards in 2009 and 2011, Welcome to Yorkshire’s Best Large Visitor Attraction in 2011 and in 2016 Hudson’s Heritage Award for ‘Best Family Day Out’. The most recent award is the Best Attraction in Yorkshire 2022.
Newby was fortunate indeed to have had my parents loving influence at such a crucial time. My mother was responsible for the redecoration of all you see and her flair and taste is known throughout the country. My father’s adaption of his father’s creation is a marvel for all to see and a wonderful legacy to his long and successful life.
Another era in Newby’s rich history started as Lucinda took on the role of custodian of the Garden (as well as the ongoing curatorial responsibility for the house contents) and recently my four year term as President of the Historic Houses Association came to an end.
The baton my parents handed over to Lucinda and me brings with it the responsibility of being the custodian of one of Britain’s treasures. We are happy to share Newby with you and we continue to need all the help you can give by coming back to see it.
Without your help Newby cannot survive as one of the finest examples of the age of elegance and of the heritage of our country.