Relhan Collection : 149 Dry Drayton Hall

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1809 </p><p>This is identified as Dry Drayton manor house, set in The Parks in the middle of Dry Drayton village. Previously the Abbot of Crowland had a summer residence here, rebuilt after being burnt by Simon de Montfort in 1266 (a moated site partially excavated by Michael Sekulla 1978-9). Probably in the 1560s John Hutton rebuilt the manor house, blocked off three lanes to create a park and built a courtyard and garden. About 1670 the house contained a hall, parlour, dining room, 6 chambers and 18 hearths. It was substantially remodelled and enlarged by Humphrey Weld (1612-1685, of Lulworth Castle, Dorset), around 1674. He refaced it in red brick and provided a 6-bay N front of three storeys, and 3-bay sides, with short wings on S. A statue stood each side of the approach from N and barns and stables lay to E. Weld was an MP and a significant figure at Court, but had too many Catholic connections to be trusted by many. Until the 1730s the dukes of Bedford maintained the Great House as an occasional residence, but from the 1750s it was let to tenant farmers before being demolished 1817, not long after Relhan made his drawing. It is now a field of low earthworks, grazed by horses. Some materials were used in Scotland Farm and fittings may have gone to the Rectory. </p><p>RCHME 1968; Sekulla 1981; Taylor 1997; VCH 1989</p></p>