Monument record MDR10486 - Markeaton Hall (site of), Markeaton, Derby

Markeaton Hall was rebuilt in 1516 and replaced in 1754-55, by a new hall surrounded by parkland (see SMR 32359). In 1929 the Hall and 16 acres of garden were left to the council. The Hall was demolished in 1964. (1) In the 15th century the Touchets had built a rambling timber-framed house in Markeaton Park which they had held since the late 11th century. In 1516 the estate was sold to John Mundy, an ex-Lord Mayor of London, who claimed local origins. His descendant, Wrightson, pulled down the old house and built a dignified brick edifice of 2 storeys, marred by the spacing of its 9 bay façade and fussily detailed quoins. The new house and its associated outbuildings were all set in a 100 acre park. On the failure of the male line of this branch of Mundy early in the 20th century, the house and park were left to the Corporation of Derby for the enjoyment of its citizens, whilst the estate passed to the heirs. Unfortunately the house was allowed to fall in disrepair and it was demolished in 1964. (2) John Mundy purchased the Markeaton estates from John Touchet in 1516, and appears to have built a large new house; it is not know whether this new house incorporated any of the earlier house lived in by the Touchets. The new house was timbered on the upper two floors above a stone ground floor and basement. A stone service wing was built to the north, with an extensive range of outbuildings running north-south before the house, timber-framed above a stone plinth which was buttressed along its outer (west) side. To the north-west a separate stable court was built in similar style. Some stone plinthwork and a pair of buttresses still survive of this build today. The whole was walled about as was the immediate area of the house itself. This house was replaced by Wrightson Mundy, a descendant of John, when he became an MP for Leicestershire and was able to move out. Designed by James Denstone, and finished in 1755, the new house faced east-west like its predecessor, with the main entrance to the west. The house was of two storeys, with nine bays to the west front and four bays to the south front. It was built in a particularly bright red brick with stone quoins and rusticated lintels from a local outcrop of millstone grit sandstone. Twenty years later Wrightson's son Francis Noel Clarke Mundy added a four-bay, three-storey east extension and entrance, probably by Thomas Gardiner of Uttoxeter, in approximately matching style. In the late 19th century this entrance portico was replaced by a twin-domed glass affair by Messenger of Loughborough. The widow of the last Mundy died in 1929 and left the hall and 16 acres of gardens to the Derby County Borough Council for use as an art gallery, museum, or other municipal purpose, but this was never realised and the house was commandeered by the Ministry of Defence for the duration of the war, but then demolished in 1964. (3)