Okeover Hall
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Okeover Hall, is a privately owned Grade II* listed country house in Staffordshire. It is the family seat of the Okeover family, which has been in residence since the reign of William Rufus. The house lies at the border of Staffordshire with Derbyshire, which lies on the far side of the small River Dove. The Hall is not open to the public.
The house and manor church (fourteenth century, restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott) were pillaged by the Jacobite forces as they marched south to Swarkstone Bridge in 1745. In 1745-47 Leak Okeover had the old hall enlarged to Palladian designs by a London carpenter and joiner, Joseph Sanderson, a cousin of John Sanderson, the architect. Stables at right angles to the house form a separate nine-bay range with a central pediment on Doric pilasters over three rusticated arches. The house is a testament to the high level of education and competence that might be elicited from a well-trained Georgian craftsman.
A feature of the house is the wrought iron gates (1756) with armorial overthrow, by master smith Benjamin Yates, a pupil of Robert Bakewell. A north wing was demolished in the early nineteenth century. Neo-Georgian south and east wings were added 1953–1960 to a sensitive design by Marshall Sisson.
In 1887 Maud Okeover married Sir Andrew Barclay Walker, a successful brewer of Gateacre, Liverpool ( see Walker Baronets) who in 1884 had purchased Osmaston Hall in nearby Derbyshire. He acquired Okeover in 1888 and assumed the name of Walker-Okeover. His grandson , the 3rd Baronet, demolished Osmaston Hall in 1964 and moved the family seat back to Okeover. The estate is currently owned by Sir Andrew Walker-Okeover, 5th Baronet.
Several members of the family have served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire and of Derbyshire.
[edit] References
- Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840, 3rd ed. 1995, under "Joseph Anderson"
- Beard, Geoffrey (1966). Georgian Craftsmen and Their Work. London: Country Life. OCLC 1061927. (2nd edition: published by South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1967. OCLC 1477644)
