Marske Estate and Hall

Marske Hall was one of the seats of the Hutton family from the late sixteenth century. It was at the centre of their lands in Swaledale. The family raised two Archbishops, as well as some famous racehorses! From about 1880s the Hall was leased to a number of colourful individuals drawn to field sports, and including bankrupts, bobsleigh champions and brewers. The Hutton family also built Skelton Hall in around 1890 – the building was not completed until the 1960s. Marske Hall and the attractive Stables building were sold in the 1950s and 1960s.

Read the full story below …..

In common with many English villages Marske was traditionally an “estate” village.  At its peak the estate covered Stainton, Welburn, Skelton, Marske, Clints and Feldom.  From the seventeenth century onwards the major landowners around Marske were the Hutton family.  Matthew Hutton (1529-1606), who had come from the village of Priest Hutton near Lancaster, was Archbishop of York from 1596 until his death.  Matthew’s eldest son, Timothy (1569-1629), bought land in Swaledale at Marske in 1597, and built the first parts of Marske Hall towards the end of his life.  A second Matthew Hutton (1693-1758) served as Archbishops of York, and Canterbury.  The earliest known picture of the Hall is from around 1720 and reproduced below.

Marske Hall c1720 by Samuel Buck: “Mask Hall near Richmond, the seat of John Hutton, Esq.”. From Samuel Buck’s Yorkshire Sketchbook, reproduced with kind permission of the British Library Collection, ref Landsdowne MS 914, pg 246.

The cartoon-like depiction, below, in a map of Marske drawn by Frances Gainford in 1732 gives another impression of the early Hall1.

Representation of Marske Hall in 1732, also showing a mill and waterwheel, as well as some similarities with the Samuel Buck drawing above. Reproduced here by kind permission of North Yorkshire County Record Office1.

The Hall was then substantially rebuilt around 1735 by John Hutton II. The extended family also had several other homes in North Yorkshire2 including Clifton Castle north of Masham and Aldburgh Hall south of Masham.  They also owned land near Manfield. Over the centuries their preferences between these houses seems to have waxed and waned, but it appears that in the nineteenth century they only lived in Marske on an irregular basis.  The ten-yearly censuses carried out in March of each year from 1841 only record the Hutton family as living at the Hall in 1841, 1871 and 18813.  Both the Stables building and the Hall itself are listed4.

In the late eighteenth century the Huttons (e.g. John Hutton 1691-1768), reared racehorses and built the Stables.  The horse Marske (1750-79) and its offspring Eclipse (1764-89) won many races. Many of today’s thoroughbred race-horses are said to be descended from these two horses5,6.

Marske Stables clock tower from Cat Bank

Most of the village would have been dependent on the estate.  All farmers would have been tenants of the Huttons; farmers made up just over 50% of the working population of the Marske area in 1881 for example (ref census returns).  In the last year in which the Huttons were recorded as living at the Hall (1881) they employed 12 staff at the Hall itself, including for example a ladysmaid, butler, laundrymaid, groom and coachman.  The censuses also record a mill in Marske, almost certainly near the bridge – it is likely any mill was also owned by the Huttons7. Assuming that most of the gamekeepers, masons, millers, carpenters and woodsmen who lived locally also worked directly for the Estate then this would mean that around another 30% of the working population was directly dependent upon the Estate.  That leaves only 20% of the population in 1881 that was not directly dependent on the Estate for employment – including such people as dress-makers, tailors, blacksmiths, and the Rector and his own retinue of domestic servants3. 

Curiously in 1891 John Timothy D’Arcy Hutton II, the main member of the family connected with the village, was recorded in the census as living at Rose Cottage on Church Road in the village. A choir concert in 1891 records at a daughter and son (Aldyth Lorna and Harold) playing a role in the village at that time (see choir). After 1891 the Huttons are not recorded again in any later published censuses as living in the village3.  John Hutton II, who was born in 1848, built Marske Lodge around 1915 (also on Church Road) and in his later years typically stayed there when he visited Swaledale – he died in 19318.  

The Huttons also constructed Skelton Hall for one of their sons and his wife-to-be. However it is told that she jilted him and the building was left incomplete (save for the roof) until the 1960s9.  However plans from 1891 record the building being designed as a “shooting box”. The upstairs was to have had nine bedrooms, one bathroom and one loo10.

Plans for Skelton Hall from 189110.
Skelton Hall today – it has been converted into five apartments.

The picture of the Huttons spending less time in the village from the 1880s onwards coincides with their employment of an “Estate Agent” (literally) from then onwards.  The first estate agent lived in the line of three houses that was constructed on School Terrace towards the end of the century; thereafter the estate agent lived at the Lodge3.  The estate agent had an estate office at the end of Church Row in Yew Tree Cottage.

The Huttons meanwhile appear to have rented out the Hall to a series of individuals who would come to Marske on the glorious 12th, the traditional August start of the grouse shooting season.  These included a Swiss gentleman, Captain Mosenthal, who went bankrupt in 189111. He was followed by Colonel Cameron owner of the eponymous brewery until 1896, and whose legacy to the village was the altar window of the church12. From the late 1920s and for most of the 1930s the Martineau family. Hubert Martineau13 led a busy sporting life that included organising annual cricket tours in Egypt and hosting touring international teams at his private cricket ground in Maidenhead. His stepson Henry14 competed for Britain in bobsleigh in the 1928 Winter Olympics. Both found time in their busy schedules to visit Marske to shoot each autumn, and gained a lot of press coverage for their activities.

Photo from 1930s Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of Martineau hunting party based in Marske.
One of a number of publications featuring the Martineau shoots from Marske – reproduced with permission of the Mary Evans Picture Library15.

The death of John Timothy D’Arcy Tim Hutton II in 1931 brought to the end an era of over three hundred years of the Hutton family living in Marske (for at least some parts of the year).  The estate was then inherited by his eldest son, John Timothy D’Arcy Hutton III, and who principally lived in Merseyside and died in 19579. He left the day-to-day administration to his estate agent Mr FM Hill. 

Large areas of the Marske Estate were compulsorily purchased by the Government in the late 1920s (Wathgill/Stainton) and early 1940s (Feldom) as part of extensions of the British Army’s Catterick Training Area (see Feldom and Catterick Training Area page).  At the onset of the Second World War the annual seasonal grouse shooting based at the Hall seemed to come to an end.  The compulsory purchase of the substantial Feldom area further reduced the size of the Marske Estate to perhaps only one third of its size at the beginning of the century.  Probably because of this the Estate didn’t re-establish itself as centre for grouse shooting after the Second World War ended.  Meanwhile during the War the Hall became the temporary home for children evacuated from Gateshaed and Scarborough College – and a short summary of that is set out in the pages about Marske and World War Two.

Recent photo of Marske Hall

The Hutton’s sold the Hall in 1951 to a local builder who converted it into flats – marketed as being within “a reasonable distance from Teesside”16. The remaining estate lands were sold in the early 1960s. The Stables block, with its distinctive cupola, was refurbished and has been operating as holiday lets since July 2021. The current owner is also regenerating the ten flats in the Hall. (Previous plans to convert Marske Hall into an aparthotel and create associated events venues were rejected in early 202117. An appeal against this decision was dismissed two years later by the Planning Inspector18.)

Return to History pages

  1. Gainford, F. 1732. Map Mannour of Marske. North Yorkshire County Record Office Ref ZAZ.[↩][↩]
  2. Hatcher, Jane. 2020. Timothy Hutton (1779-1863) of Clifton Castle and Marske in Swaledale.  2020.  A thoroughly well-written book about his life and surroundings. Taken in part from his diaries.[↩]
  3. Find my past (https://www.findmypast.co.uk/). Subscription website – accessed 2023. Census data 1841 to 1939.[↩][↩][↩][↩]
  4. Historic England.  Official listings of Marske Hall and Marske Stables. Marske Hall grade II* listing, and Marske Stables grade II listing.  Accessed 2023.[↩]
  5. Wikipedia. Marske (horse). Accessed 2023.[↩]
  6. Wikipedia. Eclipse (horse). Accessed 2023.[↩]
  7. Fieldhouse, R and Jennings, B. 1978. A History of Richmond and Swaledale. A very detailed history of the area – 500 pages.[↩]
  8. Yorkshire Post, 8 Jan 1931. Obituary. Mr J T D’Arcy Hutton, Marske. Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website).[↩]
  9. Rees, David Morgan. 2000. In the Palm of the Dale.  A portrait of farm and village life written by a regular visitor to the village. The book contains a large number of photos of the village in the 1980s and 1990s.[↩][↩]
  10. NY County Records. Catalogue Item ZAZ 87. Retrieved in 2024.[↩][↩]
  11. For example see, Richmond and Ripon Chronicle, 14 Nov 1891. Yorkshire Captain’s Racing Experiences. Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website).[↩]
  12. Northern Guardian Hartlepool, 28 Dec 1896. Death of Colonel Cameron. Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website).[↩]
  13. Wikipedia. Hubert Martineau. Accessed 2023.[↩]
  14. Wikipedia. Henry Martineau. Accessed 2023.[↩]
  15. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 19 Sep 1931. Fur and Feather in the North. Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website). Reproduced with permission of the Mary Evans Picture Library[↩]
  16. Yorkshire Post, 18 July 1951. Sales Notice. Viewed at The British Newspaper Archive (BNA website).[↩]
  17. Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. Officers report on Marske Hall, Kennels and Sawmill. Report to 9 Feb 21 Committee meeting.[↩]
  18. Planning Inspectorate. Appeal decisions in relation to Marske Hall etc. Dated 3 March 2023.[↩]