Now a beautiful Victorian country estate with a spa and hotel, Swinton Park, which lies 1km south-west of Masham in the embracing undulating rural landscape of Lower Wensleydale, has been through various incarnations in its 400-year history. The Grade II* listed property initially began life in the late 16th century, when the manor of Swinton was purchased by the Danby family. When the estate passed into wool baron, Sir Abstrupus Danby’s hands, he decided to build a new property in 1695, possibly through collaboration with his mason William Sympson.
The next owner, William Danby, embarked on a grand tour in the late 18th century and returned home to commence alterations to the house by employing prominent architects, John Carr and James Wyatt, in order to construct an impressive setting to display his curiosities. It seems likely that this trip and the aesthetic sensibilities of the time, such as the fashion for sweeping designed landscapes executed by the likes of Capability Brown et al, prompted William’s inspiration (and his son, also named William) to lay out extensive pleasure grounds with grottoes, rustic bridges and rockwork.
As the tide of architectural fashion then turned towards the Gothic, the building was transformed in the early 1800s by Robert Lugar. Trendy embellishments saw the property metamorphosise into a faux castle with turrets and crenelations as well as a large rotund tower and a porte-cochère. Further modifications followed in the late 19th century after the estate’s sale to Lord Masham.
Finally, Swinton was purchased by mill tycoon, Samuel Cunliffe-Lister, in the 1880s. Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister was created Viscount Swinton in 1935 and Earl of Swinton in 1955—and it was during this era that it became famed for shooting parties with visitors including Churchill and Chamberlain. The estate has largely remained in the family’s private ownership, though Mark Cunliffe-Lister purchased it back in 2000 as it had been sold in-between (acting as a retreat for students at Harrogate Ladies College at the beginning of World War I and then home to Swinton Conservative College) to help pay death duties in 1980. A year later it saw conversion into an hotel.
Books by Dr Emma Wells
