Finding echoes of the past in the present

ELTON HALL, tucked into the fold where the Fens meet the Northamptonshire hills, has been in a state of continual adaptation and renewal since the reign of Henry VII. Sir Richard Sapcote built the first major buildings in about 1469, but, by 1664, when Sir Thomas Proby took ownership, the house was in disrepair and had to be pulled down, with only the gatehouse and chapel remaining. For almost four centuries, the Proby family has added, extended and rejuvenated the property, concocting a magnificent collage of octagonal bay windows, castellated turrets, Gothic embellishments and Classical façades (COUNTRY LIFE, ). The garden is more of a mystery. There are no records of the original medieval outline and only one drawing from 1730 showing formal gardens to the north-west followed, a few decades later, by sketches of lawns, trees and crisply divided spaces for a bowling green, rose garden and bedding out.