Sulby Hall, around 1905 (original image) (Ref:M.H1.1993.106.0)
This image is a copy photograph of a postcard showing the south facing rear of Sulby Hall in around 1905. The gardens at the hall were once described as "here no blaze of rare and exotic flora, but rich green lawns such as only England can show, and large beds of antirrhinums - lovable cottage flowers."
Sulby is first recorded as 'Soleibi', meaning Sula's farmstead. The Hall is on the site of a Premonstratensian abbey, founded in 1155. In 1792 Rene Payne of Welford employed Sir John Soane to design a house on land in the Parish of Sulby. The house, built in the Palladian style in 1793-95, was of two storeys with basement and attics. In 1810, Payne's grandson George, 1803-78, who according to legend was the secret son of King George IV, inherited the house, and on coming of age in 1824, used the considerable fortune that had accumulated during his minority, to enlarge it.
In 1912 it was purchased by Major Guy Paget and a second storey was added. The Paget coat of arms were used on a bridge at the west end of the main lawn. Twenty hunters were kept in the stable block for riding with the Pytchley hounds and these buildings later became a farm in the 1950s. From 1916 to 1919 Sulby Hall was used as a hospital with fifty beds for men wounded in the First World War and they were often seen exercising in these grounds. It was eventually sold for demolition in 1952.
