Appleby Hall was a manor house or stately home built in the small hamlet of Appleby Parva, on the outskirts of Appleby Magna.
A Manor was mentioned in the Domesday Book and there have been several houses on the site until the final building, a Classical style Stately Home known as Appleby Hall, was built in the 1830s.
Like many landed families, the Moore family who owned it fell on hard times, and the Hall was demolished in the 1920s.
The First Manors
The Hamlet of Appleby Parva is originally thought to have been a Danish settlement. Listed in the Domesday Book as Apleberie, after the Battle of Hastings the Manor was given to the Norman, Henry De Ferrers, with his son Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby acting as Lord.
Nothing is known of the early Manor, or Manors on the site.
The Moore family
The Manor of Appleby Parva was purchased by the Moore Family at the very end of the 16th century and would remain in their possession until the start of the 20th century. Over this time the family demolished the existing manor house and built and extended their new house to become Appleby Hall. The direct line of the Moores as lords of the manor failed three times, and the family were not in constant occupation at the Hall.
The family came to own much of the land in the Parish of Appleby Magna, as well as Snarestone Lodge in a neighbouring village, Kentwell Hall in Suffolk and land in (and the Lordship of) Bentley, Warwickshire.
The most famous member of the family was Sir John Moore. As a second (and thus non-inheriting) son, he went to London to make his own fortune, becoming a merchant, an MP, and later Lord Mayor and Alderman of London. He contributed large sums to the erection of schools at Christ's Hospital, and founded a free grammar school in Appleby Magna, now called Sir John Moore Church of England Primary School. He died aged 81, on 2 June 1702, leaving his estates, worth £80,000 (£6,247,200 today), to his two nephews living in Appleby Parva.
In addition to building and developing the Hall, the Moore Family developed much of the surrounding land in the Hamlet. Charles Moore had the existing manor house demolished in 1770. George Moore sought to improve the poorly drained land around the land at the turn of the 19th century. His son George constructed Appleby Hall and created the landscaped Parkland that surrounded it. George became a magistrate for the counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Warwickshire and was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1837.
The Moore family continued to hold considerable influence over Appleby Magna and Parva until the end of the 19th century. They had no formal titles, and were known locally as Squires. They became patrons for the village, funding the refurbishment of the church and the construction of the Almshouses in Appleby Magna. A secondary line to that living at the Hall served as Rectors to the Parish for several generations.
By the 1880s the family's fortunes had sharply declined when the Agricultural slump causing revenues to fall considerably. With no money, the Hall was eventually sold in 1919, followed by the last member of the family moving away to Devon.
Development of the Hall
In 1770, Charles Moore demolished the existing Manor house. It is unclear if an entirely new house was constructed or an existing smaller house was modified, however a building existed on the site by 1796, known at the time as 'Town House', but which would eventually become known as 'Appleby House'.
In 1813, George Moore inherited and sought to improve the poorly drained, waterlogged land of the hamlet, which was prone to flooding, especially in the winter months. George was a pioneer in agricultural techniques and was described by John Nichols as "the first introducer of the improved system of watering grass-lands in this country", having previously won a gold medal, for under-draining land, from the Society of Arts in the year 1794.
Appleby Hall would be substantially remodelled and expanded to create Appleby Hall by George's son, another George Moore, between 1832 and 1838. George retained the existing Appleby house as an attachment to the rear of the new classical style mansion he built.
George obliterated the late medieval settlement pattern; the surrounding properties were demolished and 'New Road' was built to replace the earlier road that passed by the front of the house, thereby creating a private garden around the house, landscaped parkland, and a deer park. New carriage ways were built, as were gatehouses (which, although altered and extended, still exist today).