Golden vision for new home was no folly
Henbury Hall was inspired by one man’s eye for the extraordinary,
Henbury Hall looks like a folly, with its dome and pillars. And that’s exactly how the Neo-Palladian house, two miles from Macclesfield in the Cheshire countryside, was initially conceived.
It was built by Sebastian de Ferranti, who died in 2015. Henbury was his great project, explains his widow, Gilly de Ferranti. “The original drawings are of a folly with just one floor, but the idea grew, and it was decided that it would be a house – a strange little house.”
Sebastian was a scion of the de Ferranti family, who came to the UK from Italy in the mid-19th century. They were founders of electrical company Ferranti Ltd, which sold one of the first commercially available computers. In 1957, Sebastian’s father, Sir Vincent de Ferranti, bought the Henbury estate, which at that time had a much larger house on the site, built in 1742 before being remodelled in the 19th century. “It was massive,” says Gilly. “One wing had already been knocked down, and where the wing had been there was an ugly scar.”
Sir Vincent decided to demolish the rest of the house, and converted the stables to live in, while he considered his next project. When he died in 1980, that project, a new house, had never been built, and in 1982 Sebastian took it on. The new Henbury Hall was completed in 1986.
Today, the folly-cum-house has six en suite bedrooms. Inside, gold glints off the walls; Sebastian, Gilly says, loved gold. “He was mad about it, always having people doing a bit of extra gilding, virtually until the day he died,” she says.
There is also a “piano nobile” – the principle floor a storey above the ground, giving the impression that one is somehow floating over the landscape.
“People building houses now want more of a living space on the ground floor,” says Jeremy Musson, who has written a book about the story of the property. “Sebastian wanted a house that worked in a particular way, for a traditional vision. It’s a space that works well if you’re two people, but opens up if you have 50 people. It’s surprisingly concertina-like.”
Designed by the architect Julian Bicknell, Henbury is “a child of the Villa La Rotonda in Vicenza, and the Temple of the Four Winds at Castle Howard [designed by Sir John Vanbrugh],” Gilly says. “But I think this house is much prettier than the Villa Rotonda.” It is certainly grand, for a little house – “it’s got delusions of grandeur”.
Sebastian liked grand houses, she adds. “He loved Houghton Hall [in Norfolk]; Henbury would fit into one tiny pocket of it. He didn’t like those dark, low sort of houses with tiny windows.” Henbury is just right, she says; anything imposing would be too much. “Houses like Burghley [in Lincolnshire] were built by courtiers, and they are wonderful, just socking, but I wouldn’t want to live somewhere like that. You’d have to live in a tiny wing.
“In today’s world, it’s a great burden – even in this little house, things happen, and you’ve got to have somebody who knows what they’re doing.”
Sebastian loved building it, Gilly de Ferranti says. “Julian Bicknell said he had never had a client who knew so much about it. When he was alive, sometimes he would say, ‘shall we move?’
“People might think that’s astonishing, given that he’d just done this, but I think he just liked doing it.
“He was really interested in architecture, in beautiful things.” He was proud of the house, like a mother might be of a newborn baby.
“He used to carry around a picture of Henbury,” Gilly says with a laugh. “So cringe-making. Once, we went to a wedding at Le Château de Vauxle-Vicomte, and Madame de Vogüé, whose family own it, appeared looking ravishing. We were chatting away and Sebastian said, ‘well, of course, my house…’ and I thought, no, don’t!
“Vaux-le-Vicomte is enormous, it couldn’t be more splendid if it tried, and out of the pocket came this picture. Heaven knows what she thought.”
But Sebastian “was a very lovable person”. “There was nothing pompous about him, he saw the funny side of himself,” she says. “He loved his house, and he made no apology about it.”
Henbury has been on the market at different times in recent years, but this year, it has finally sold.
As lockdown eased, Gilly moved out. “It was ridiculous for me to live there on my own,” she says.
“I loved it, but it cost a lot of money to run, for me on my own. As time went on, shelling out huge amounts of money to keep everything going was ridiculous. Sebastian’s children didn’t want it, as they’ve all got their own lovely houses.”
In due course, Henbury will be home to a new family.
“It’s been a happy house, a happy place for me,” says Gilly. “There are no daunting great corridors, or wings that nobody goes into. It’s almost a oneroom house.” The wider estate is 500 acres, comprising mostly agricultural land and a handful of properties, plus a polo field, 100 acres of woodland, and private gardens, which include a swimming pool.
Gilly, who trained as a landscape gardener, has loved the grounds at Henbury, with its walled garden, lake and antique glasshouses. “The Brocklehursts lived here before us. One of them was a plant-hunter and had brought back the most wonderful trees, so the garden is full of mature sequoias, rhododendrons, chestnuts, and magnolias.”
She has recently said goodbye to the house. “It was emotional, but in a way the pandemic dulled everything, because everything that one might have done, like having a farewell party, one couldn’t – so it was like a little farewell whimper, instead of a last hurrah.”
Henbury: An Extraordinary House by Jeremy Musson is published by Pimpernel Press
‘Sebastian used to carry a picture of the house. He loved it, and made no apology about it’