Last week we looked at the ancient history of Dutton Hall, which sat above the River Weaver with views up to Acton Cliffe, later also looking down on the Trent and Mersey canal.
This was the family seat of the Dutton Family, a common Cheshire surname from around the 10th century. The hall had alterations and was rebuilt through the years.
But now, coming forward to 1907, when another hall known as The Homestall near East Grinstead in Sussex was purchased by Lord Tommy Dewar of the scotch whisky distillers John Dewar and Sons, Perth, Scotland.
This hall was also steeped in history dating from 1350 as a simple farmhouse that had been a 'hunting box' for John O' Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and third son of King Edward III.
Tommy Dewar was knighted in 1902; in 1919, he became the first Baron Dewar. When he died in 1930, The Homestall was left to his nephew John Arthur Dewar.
John had recently married, and his new wife, Katherine McNeill, stated that big though it was after much rebuilding over the preceding years, it was still not big enough for their planned social events.
One day as she was in a London bookshop, she came across a book titled 'The Duttons of Dutton', an account of the family written in 1902.
The book contained a picture of Dutton Hall in Cheshire. She discussed it with her husband, and the possibility of attaching Dutton Hall to The Homestall was contemplated if it could be arranged.
The couple visited Cheshire in 1931 and found they could buy Dutton Hall and John Arthur Dewar duly purchased it.
A condition of the purchase was that they have a modern farmhouse built on the site of Dutton Hall in Cheshire, and it was agreed.
An expert from Bath named Mr Wood was contracted to take the hall down and transport it to Sussex to attach it to The Homestall, making a large, grand, and impressive residence.
Under the supervision of Mr Wood, Dutton Hall was carefully taken to pieces; all the stones and beams were marked and numbered before transportation to Sussex in 60 lorry loads.
They were then carefully re-erected, becoming part of The Homestall. By 1933 the much-extended building was completed.
The porch and the massive inner door with its moulded mullions, iron studs, and the six shields bearing the arms of the Dutton and Hatton families stand precisely as they did in Cheshire.
The house and estate then became known as Dutton Homestall. During WWII, the Dewars offered the house as a hospital for officers; it became an auxiliary to the nearby Royal Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead.
John Arthur Dewar of Dutton Homestall died in Italy on August 15, 1954, leaving in his will £78 million in today's money. From the 1950s, The manor became a boy's school with other schools amalgamated under the name The Stoke Brunswick School, Dutton Homestall.
Dutton Hall was offered for sale separately in 2021 for £2.9 million, and the original Homestall Hall was also being sold with a price tag of £2.2 million.
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