A NEW generation of visitors are now being given the chance to enjoy an historic Essex stately home which has been restored to its former glory.

Hatfield Place had fallen into disrepair but there were still nods to its original splendour when Ian and Alison Twinley bought it three years ago.

The securing of its future is a perfect opportunity to look back at the property’s past.

Now, following a huge amount of investment and sheer hard work, the property, in Hatfield Peverel, has been re-launched as a venue providing much-needed income for a long-term sustainable future.

This is something they, and Historic England, were particularly keen on because the house comes with such a pedigree.

Commissioned by Colonel John Tyrell in the 1790s it has many original features designed by the respected architect and surveyor for Essex, John Johnson.

Colonel Tyrell is reported to have paid Johnson, whose other notable work includes Chelmsford’s Shire Hall, what would in today’s money be around £1million to build Hatfield Place.

In its early years it was passed to William Walford and then his son, also William.

The house was sold in 1846 but soon after John Tyrell bought it back and during the Victorian and Edwardian years it became a dowry of the female line of the family which helped them secure marriage, status and financial security.

As a result, Mary Tyrell lived there during the 1850s and 1860s with her husband, the third Baronet Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny.

When he died in 1868 the house passed to Mary’s sister Eliza, who had married William Tufnell and when he passed away in 1905 he in turn left it to his daughter Agnes and son-in-law Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Chandos Arkwright.

Sadly Arkwright is said to have killed himself after becoming depressed following the First World War meaning the property and land was once again put up for sale.

Bedfordshire businessman Charles Scott snapped it up in 1919, keeping it until 1925 and during his ownership hosting a grand historical pageant on behalf of the Women’s Institute over two days and re-enacting the history of Hatfield Peverel.

Harrods, no less, was instructed to handle the offer and transfer of sale when it went back on the market and in 1927 Kenneth McCorquodale and his family moved in.

Their son, Alistair, competed for Britain in the 1948 Olympics, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.

In 1956 the family once again sold the house and it was owned as a private home until the 1990s and then later being bought by Alison and Ian Twinley in 2016.

The couple explain the renovations, costing in excess of £1million, began with new Welsh slates, replacement lead valley and hips and repairs to the outside masonry.

www.hatfieldplace.com