Eyre Family Seats
14 generations of the Hercy family lived at Grove from the time of Henry III in the 13th century. Sir John Hercy probably built a new house in the mid-16th century. When he died without issue in 1572 the hall passed to his brother in law George Nevile of Ragnall. The widow of Edward Nevile sold the Grove estate to Sir Creswell Levinz in 1687. Additions were made to the house in the Queen Anne style in the early 18th century by Sir Creswell and his son.
In 1762 Mr William Levinz sold Grove Hall to Anthony Eyre (1727-1788), who employed John Carr of York to remodel the hall. Carr added a new south-west wing of state rooms. Improvements to the landscaping were planned by Thomas White senior (1736-1811) in 1773 but were probably not carried out.
Further internal alterations were carried out by Anthony Hardolph Eyre in the 1790s. He also had a new drive laid out, built two lodges, and undertook landscaping work on the advice on Humphrey Repton. A schoolroom block was added in 1845. Grove Hall was sold by Lieutenant-Colonel Granville C.F. Harcourt-Vernon in 1946, and was demolished in 1952. The site of Grove Hall is now a poultry farm.
A medieval manor house existed at Rampton from at least the 12th century, and was altered or rebuilt by John and Sauncia Babington in the mid-16th century. It passed to the Eyre family in the early 17th century but was demolished in 1726 by Anthony Eyre (c.1691-1748).
Only a Tudor gateway now survives, which marked the private entrance from the manor house to the churchyard. A new manor house was built by the Rev. Charles Wasteneys Eyre in 1853. It was sold to Mr Cottam of South Leverton in 1893, and then to Mr Charles E. Ellis, J.P., in 1902. The manor house was demolished in 1985.
A park was created by George Wasteneys in the early 16th century. In 1710 Sir Hardolph Wasteneys, 4th Baronet, rebuilt the manor house as a mansion. When he died without issue in 1742, Headon Park passed to his great-niece Judith Laetitia Bury, and thence to her husband Anthony Eyre of Grove. Anthony Hardolph Eyre (1757-1836), resident at the much grander and neighbouring Grove Hall, demolished the house at Headon in the early 1790s and ploughed up the parkland.
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