Abbeystead House

Abbeystead House was built in 1886 as a shooting lodge for the 4th Earl of Sefton. who added gun and billiard rooms in 1894. The estate holds the record for the biggest grouse bag in a day; when on 12 August 1915, 2,929 birds were shot by eight guns (shooters). In 1980 the Abbeystead Estate, totalling 18000 acre and including the house, was bought by a trust relating to the family of the Duke of Westminster. Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, died suddenly at the house on 9 August 2016.

The house is built in sandstone rubble with slate roofs in Elizabethan style. Its plan is an L-shape, with south and east ranges partly enclosing a courtyard. The south range forms the main block while the east range is the service wing which incorporates a four-storey castellated tower. To the east of the main house subsidiary buildings form a second courtyard. The south range has two storeys plus attics and is entered by a porch on its north side. The façade of the north (entrance) front is irregular, and consists of five bays, three of which project forward and are surmounted by gables of different sizes with ball finials. The front also includes mullioned and transomed windows, a…