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A wonderful country home in Yorkshire designed by a pupil of one of Georgian Britain's greatest-ever architects

If the grand architecture of Rudby Hall in Yorkshire looks both magnificent and familiar, there's a good reason: it was created by an architect who was a disciple of the legendary John Nash.

Elegant Rudby Hall is set in seven acres of grounds near Stokesley, North Yorkshire © Savills
Elegant Rudby Hall is set in seven acres of grounds near Stokesley, North Yorkshire © Savills
(Image credit: Savills)

This Grade II-listed Italian-villa style mansion in North Yorkshire was built by renowned architect Anothony Salvin in 1828. Rudby Hall is currently listed for sale with Savills’s York office at a guide price of £2.5 million.

Born in Sunderland Bridge, Co Durham, and educated at Durham School, Salvin was apprenticed to the Scottish architect John Paterson, before moving in 1821 to London, where he entered the office of John Nash, one of Britain's greatest ever architects.

Salvin himself would have a hugely distinguished career. Elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 1824, his reputation as an expert on medieval buildings helped to further his career both as a restorer of castles and country houses and as a builder of new houses and churches.

The 17,377sq ft house has been adapted in recent years to serve a dual role as a private home and an elegant venue for weddings

In 1838, Salvin was commissioned by Lucius Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland, to build him a new house called Leven Grove (which would come to be Rudby Hall) in the Italian-villa style on the site of an earlier mansion of that name at the heart of his North Yorkshire estate.

Later known as Skutterskelfe Hall, the house remained in the Falkland family until 1898, when it was sold to the Ropner family, who owned it until 1950.

The main house offers four impressive reception rooms and a large family kitchen

Comprehensively restored as the corporate headquarters of an international chemicals company in the 1980s and 1990s and renamed Rudby Hall, the imposing, 17,377sq ft house has been adapted in recent years to serve a dual role as a private home and an elegant venue for weddings and large gatherings.

Rudby Hall, listed Grade II*, takes full advantage of its natural surroundings, which incorporate the key features of the River Leven and its streams and the borrowed landscape of the Cleveland Hills beyond.

There are 13 bedrooms on the first and second floors of the imposing house

The charm of the landscape was retained and enhanced by Salvin by further woodland planting and a new terraced garden next to the hall. The parkland and much of the woodland remains, as does the structure of the walled kitchen garden and formal terraced area.

Additional buildings include The Courtyard and Garden House

Handily located a mile from Hutton Rudby village and four miles west of the stylish market town of Stokesley within the picturesque Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, Rudby Hall is built of ashlar sandstone under a Westmorland slate roof and is in good order throughout.

The main house offers four impressive reception rooms and a large family kitchen, with 13 bedrooms on the first and second floors. The Courtyard and Garden House have been refurbished in recent years to provide ancillary accommodation and a useful rental income.

Rudby Hall is listed with Savills at a guide price of £2.5 million.


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Penny Churchill
Penny Churchill is property correspondent for Country Life Magazine