The Lost Houses of Lincolnshire - Denton Manor



Blomfield's original drawing of Denton Manor

The Welby family has lived at Denton since the reign of Henry VIII.   The first house was a timber-framed hall, the Manor had a Tudor oak frame within it which was probably from the original hall.  Little is known of the houses between the first hall and the early 19th century when an existing house was extensively reodelled.  

Denton Manor was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield (he also designed the Central Library and Usher Art Gallery at Lincoln) for Sir William Earle Welby-Gregory, and built between 1879 and 1883.





The 1906 fire, flames probably added by the postcard printer



A fire broke out in the private chapel, caused probably by a flue overheating on 14th January 1906. The house was restored in 1906 but demolished in 1939 after another fire in 1938.

Among the fittings of the house offered for sale were:
  • Tudor period oak, modern oak and walnut panelling
  • A walnut panelled ceiling
  • A carved over-mantel having inset kingwood panels inlaid with mother-of-pearl by Van Ryswick
  • Walnut three-flight and other staircases
  • 130 oak and pine panelled doors
The house was built of 100,000 tons of hammer-carved stone and 150,000 bricks.



"On the estate is a spring much frequented, from the medicinal virtue ascribed to its waters; it is very pure, and similar to that of Malvern Wells, in Worcestershire: it bears the name of St. Christopher's Well." - History of the County of Lincoln Vol II - 1834