(SK 206153) Catton Hall (named on map) (1) Catton Hall, a three-storeyed building of red brick with a hipped slate roof, begun in 1741-2 for Christopher Horton. The central stone doorway has Doric columns and pediment, and an entrance in the south east side dates from the 19th century. To the left is a 'Queen Anne' style wing of 1907. Grade II*. (2-4) Country house designed in 1741 for Christopher Horton by William Smith, with wing added to the design of Sir Thomas Jackson in 1907. Interior altered in the early nineteenth century. A large square brick house of severe classical design. (5) Catton Hall was built in 1742 by William Smith of Warwick for Christopher Horton, whose family had lived on the site since 1405. The east (garden) front is of nine bays, the central three breaking slightly forward, the whole relieved by a stucco band above the ground floor windows and an elegantly proportioned Tuscan porch surmounted by a triangular pediment on a metope frieze. All very plain and agreeable. Within, a plastered entrance hall, staircase ceiling and generally very impressive. Glover reports that the kitchens were "large and fitted up with steam boilers, stoves, etc. by Mr Harrison of Derby" although these were replaced in 1907 by new L-shaped kitchens and offices designed by Sir T G Jackson in Queen Anne style. The property passed to Wilmot in 1823 and Sir Robert Wilmot altered the entrance front from south to east within 6 years. On the extinction of the Wilmots, it passed via the Ansons to the family of its present owner, Mr D W H Neilson. (6) The Horton family has occupied Catton Hall for many years. For more than four centuries it passed directly from one Horton to another until the death of Eusebius Horton in 1823. Catton went to his elder daughter, Anne Beatrix. Eventually Catton and the baronetcy passed to a Wilmot cousin and died out in 1931. Catton however did retain its link with the Hortons; on the death of George Lewis Wilmot-Horton in 1887 who had previously held Catton, the estate passed to his niece, Anne Beatrix's grand-daughter. Christopher Horton commissioned the construction of Catton by architect James Gibbs in about 1742, completing the building in 1745. Since then there have been two important structural changes. Sometime before 1829 the main entrance was moved from the centre of the south front to the east front and in 1907 the old kitchen and offices were replaced by an L-shaped building with hipped roofs on the north east corner of the house. All of Gibb's rooms apart from the library have remained intact- for instance the drawing room has finely panelled walls and the morning room is spacious and most attractive. The estate is one mentioned in the Domesday Book and sold only once, with Horton descendants still there. (7)