The Sunday Telegraph - Sunday

‘These places need the noise of families’

It’s been all hands to the pump at Newby Hall to keep it going over lockdown, learns Eleanor Doughty

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Once, a Lord Grantham ran a large stately home in North Yorkshire. It had decadent interiors, a full complement of staff – and his daughter was called Lady Mary. But this is not the familiar tale of a certain Sunday night ITV series; instead, it was life at Newby Hall in the 19th century.

Newby, 12 miles from Ripon, was built in 1697 by Sir Christophe­r Wren. It has been called the “Jewel of the North”, and it’s easy to see why. Robert Adam’s neoclassic­al hall has mahogany doors, and furniture by Thomas Chippendal­e.

The Red Passage contains a pair of Adam bookcases, while the malachite top of a 19th century cabinet was given to the house’s former owner, Thomas Robinson, 3rd Lord Grantham, by Peter II of Russia. Adam’s Tapestry Room contains more Chippendal­e furniture and an Axminster carpet, and was designed to display Gobelins tapestries, ordered in Paris in 1763.

And then there’s the statue gallery, full of the spoils of the grand tour of another previous inhabitant, William Weddell, including Roman pieces from the first century BC, which arrived at Newby in 19 chests.

Chosen as one of the houses for the Coats Mission – establishe­d in 1940 to evacuate the Royal family in the event of a German invasion – it escaped wartime requisitio­ning. Today, it is run by Richard and Lucinda Compton.

Major Edward Compton, Richard’s grandfathe­r, was a driving force at Newby Hall during the 20th century. Born in 1891, he fought in both the First and Second World Wars; a “fanatical” gardener, he designed a series of formal gardens on the estate.

“He said he inherited a lovely picture with no frame – a beautiful house with no garden,” says Richard, 63, who is wearing cufflinks featuring a picture of Newby.

In 1948 Major Compton opened Newby to the public. “When they arrived he would go and park the cars, and then sell his geraniums to visitors.” Back then, only a few thousand visitors came to Newby every year. Today, under usual circumstan­ces, that number is 140,000.

The major lived a traditiona­l life, says his grandson. He had a butler until he died in 1977, who was also his driver, and “more of a friend”. His three children, including Robin, Richard’s father, were brought up at Newby, and he remained in charge until his death.

In 1951 Robin married society beauty Ursula “Janey” Kenyon-Slaney, a friend of the Kennedy family and Lord Mountbatte­n. “Once, she was talking about redecorati­ng, and my grandfathe­r said, ‘ that all sounds lovely, but can you wait until I’m dead?’ ”

The house that Robin and Janey inherited needed work. It had last been done up in the 1930s; wallpaper was peeling and lampshades were disintegra­ting. In time they redecorate­d the main rooms, and in 1971 Lord Mountbatte­n opened a miniature railway in the grounds, which visitors can ride today. Robin, the chairman of Time Life Internatio­nal, had played in Humphrey Lyttelton’s jazz band at Eton, and served with the Coldstream Guards during the Second World War. “He was a very humble person,” remembers Lucinda.

Robin and Janey handed over Newby in 1997, and soon after, Richard, Lucinda, and their three children moved to the house from London. It was a difficult transition. “If you’ve lived in total privacy it’s tough to come to a place where it’s a goldfish bowl. When you’ve got pictures of yourselves in the house, people know who you are,” says Richard. They considered not moving into Newby, but that “would have been totally the wrong decision. These places need to have the noise of families living in them,” he adds.

“It’s something you have to do out of duty,” says Lucinda, whose mother was brought up at Hartland Abbey in Devon. The Comptons live in modest surroundin­gs, with a sitting room, bedroom, and kitchen – right on top of the shop. “I wouldn’t say we are always relaxed here because it is our business,” says Richard.

As well as the gardens, there’s a restaurant, and a collection of 70 dolls’ houses, as well as Gyles Brandreth’s 1,000-strong teddy bear collection that he donated to the house.

The Comptons spent lockdown at Newby, with the household staff and all but one of their gardeners furloughed. “Lucinda has been in the gardens dawn until dusk,” Richard explains. “It takes 13 hours to do one cut of the lawns, so I’ve been doing that – it’s been all hands to the pump.”

The house’s narrow corridors make it ill-suited to social distancing, and it is still closed to the public. Richard is not confident that it will open this year, though the gardens and restaurant have reopened. The dozen weddings booked in for 2020 have been postponed until next year, and though “one should always be hopeful, we just don’t know what the new norm is going to be, and that’s the worrying thing”.

Newby is not Downton Abbey, but dangers endure for the country house community. Instead of the demolition that occurred through the 20th century, now “once a house becomes unsustaina­ble, it’s sold to a rich individual who then closes it,” says Richard, a former president of Historic Houses, a body that represents owners of stately homes. “Then the contents get split, and it ends up abroad. The losers are those who want to see heritage maintained in the proper way.”

Would he rather have been Lord Grantham? “I’m very happy being plain Mr Richard Compton,” he laughs. Anyway, says his wife, “it’s a disadvanta­ge having a title. To be as normal as possible is what most of us want to be.”

‘He said he inherited a lovely picture with no frame – a beautiful house with no garden’

 ??  ?? GO WITH THE FLOW The River Ure in the grounds of the estate, left
GO WITH THE FLOW The River Ure in the grounds of the estate, left
 ??  ?? LIFE’S RICH TAPESTRY Newby Hall, main; the statue gallery, above right; the tapestry room, right
LIFE’S RICH TAPESTRY Newby Hall, main; the statue gallery, above right; the tapestry room, right
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 ??  ?? A DOG’S LIFE
Richard and Lucinda Compton, above, with their dog, Staffa
A DOG’S LIFE Richard and Lucinda Compton, above, with their dog, Staffa

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