Markenfield Hall

The Hall and the Grantley family have several claims to fame. The house acted as the starting point for The Rising of the North in 1569, an act of treason by Sir Thomas Markenfield that saw it swiftly confiscated. It slumbered on in relative obscurity until 1761 when it was bought by Sir Fletcher Norton – later to become Lord Grantley, First Baron of Markenfield, a title still held by the family to this day.

In 1827 the brother of 3rd Lord Grantley married the young socialite Caroline Sheridan. Caroline Norton, as she became, was charming, witty and artistic – everything her new husband was not. Caroline subsequently founded the divorce and custody laws we know today – before her, a wife’s property and children belonged to her husband and if a woman accepted her husband’s infidelity she had no subsequent grounds for divorce. We are rightly proud of our connection to Caroline, who is Great, Great, Great Grandmother of the present Lord Grantley.

Markenfield is the seat of the Grantley family – builders of nearby Grantley Hall – and lived in by the widow of 7th Lord Grantley and her second husband. Together, Lady Deirdre and Ian Curteis continue the restoration of the Hall and the wider Estate. The Grantley family have owned Markenfield since 1761, and can trace their lineage back to the Markenfield family, so in essence the Hall has remained in the ownership of same family for 500 years.