South Ormsby Hall is 'in private hands', owned by Mr. & Mrs. Jon and Jan Thornes and if one does simple Google searches regarding Mr. Thornes's background almost all of what one will find reflects his success in numerous businesses. My own description of the man that bought South Ormsby Hall and its 3,000 acre estate, lock stock & barrel (speculated at the price of between £20M/£25M) is that he represents "new money" compared to the last aristocratic 'squire' owner, Adrian Massingberd-Mundy (who died in 2012) who was 'old school' and 'old money'. I'm not saying either one is better than the other, just that their lifestyles are so very different (in my estimation).
As a "Friend Of South Ormsby" I was able to pay (only £5 per head) to visit the Hall and the gardens and our tour was led by Ms. Caron Ementon, a former Head Teacher but now working for The Estate as their Heritage Interpreter and Administrator. Her tour was very well organised, researched and presented and gave a great insight into the Estate's history.
Reading between the lines one picks-up locally that there is obviously some controversy over the plans that the relatively new owner has for The Estate which include the building of a quite large number of houses and the establishing of many businesses within The Estate. Personally, when I attended, some months ago, an exhibition, on Mr. Thornes's "Vision for the Future" I thought his plans were good and would sustain The Estate and probably ultimately make him a lot of money too (much of which he'll need to restore the Hall etc.). The only thing that puts people off the idea of making money is usually something called envy and I would guess that some opposition to his proposals relate to people that are envious of his success and potential further success. I speak as something of a natural anti-Tory as I am generally inclined, politically, to the left, but I am also of the view that old estates need to be viable and there's nothing wrong with enterprise in my book. He (Mr. Thornes) has already created a number of jobs at The Estate and some of his employees, if not all, will be tasked to be self-generating of the income that they are in receipt of. In other words, they'll need to earn their keep by bringing in more business (and businesses) to the whole operation - the brand. My only reservation is that I hope that the character and landscape - the look of The Estate - will not be jeopardised but enhanced.
The Hall is run-down and in need major renovation (some of which is already underway). It is described, I am sure, correctly, as Palladian architecture (I as a former London Blue Badge Guide did plenty of study on architectural styles) but to my mind it is not very typical. When I think of Andrea Palladio's style of architecture, I think of very grand classically-styled places like The White House (in The States), The Queen's House at Greenwich, Chiswick House in West London, and the most impressive building that I recall from my (West Country) tour guiding days was Prior Park (Ralph Allen's home) in Bath, none of which look at all like South Ormsby Hall (SOH), except perhaps in symmetry, but I reckon the differences are because SOH is red brick and not the more common stucco style of render that I associate with many grand Palladian buildings.
I took copious notes during my visit for my own interest and some of them are translated (and I mean really - deciphered) below in a random, non-prioritised, bulleted note form, I am fully aware that many points that one might wish to know, like dates of what occurred when, are absent, but I will add information as and when I can substantiate it:
- Adrian Massingberd-Mundy (the Estate's former owner) resided with his partner - a woman by the name of Sara Perceval. She was a dress designer to many famous people like Shirley Bassey, Dame Barbara Cartland (who introduced the couple to each other) and Rod Stewart (although I guess for something other than dresses). They never married, nor had any children. Adrian's only sibling, his sister, too, had no children, hence the 'end of the line' as it were.
- In The Hall is a photo by Tony Snowdon (Princess Margaret's high society photographer husband) of Sara Perceval. He allegedly said to her when presenting the photo "Rather glamorous - not like you at all, Sara." - Sounds to me exactly what he might have said by the way of a back-handed compliment (any documentaries one might catch that include him tend to reveal his sense of humour).
- The primary architect of South Ormsby Hall was James Paine who also did parts of Chatsworth House
- Peter Atkinson made some alterations at The Hall including adding the entrance doric-capital columns (that are in a poor way, one very obviously disintegrating, and requiring restoration urgently I would say).
- William Kent (whom I was familiar with and whom I used to lecture many years ago at The National Maritime Museum where the incredibly ornate Royal Barge [that he designed] was housed) was also involved in some design aspects of South Ormsby Hall.
- The Massingberds (c 1638) when they settled at The Estate were pioneering farmers introducing new ideas to agriculture. The owner's brother owned and resided at Gunby Hall (now owned by National Trust) about ten miles away near Skegness. their joint family estates covered hundreds of square miles of Mid Lincolnshire when at their peak in the 18th century.
- The 18th. century family at South Ormsby - an outline is shown here.
- Possibly the largest painting of note in The Hall is a portrait of Anne Blackall (wife of Charles Burrell Massingberd) by the well-known artist, Angelica Kaffmann - a founder member of the RA (Royal Academy of Art) London. To my mind, this (although most members of today's tour group agreed that the painting was highly out of proportion), is certainly a very valuable painting (along with many others) and bear in mind that the purchase of The Estate by Jon Thornes was "lock, stock and barrel" hence he acquired an unknown vast quantity of (in some cases) still to be catalogued, artifacts from paintings to library books to furniture so - a wealth of 'stock' still of indeterminate value to The Estate.
- The staircase is carved by William Lumby and represents one of the finest Georgian staircases certainly found anywhere in the county of Lincolnshire.
- Estate's Facebook page (I don't do FB by the way).
- Historic England's listing here.
- William Oswald Massingberd (Rector) wrote a book entitled: History of the Parish of Ormsby-Cum-Ketsby in the Hundred of Hill and County of Lincoln. There is a copy in Louth Library and it can be commercially obtained here and here as well as other sources.
- There's a lot of useful information at the Layers of History website here (that has connections with The South Ormsby Estate).
I did take a video of the garden area (including one of the two Hall cats) but, as ever, the film was too big for Mr. Google to permit me uploading it - sorry! I may try to upload it to YouTube later on and provide a link here.
Here's some pictures (possibility of more being added from time to time):
Some reference points regarding the owner, Mr Jon Thornes, and of The South Ormsby Estate:
- A business article here.
- An article concerning the proposed gin distillery in Driby (part of The Estate as I understand it) is here.
- Lincolnshire Live article about the proposed new homes building on The Estate is here.
- Information on The Lincs Wolds website is here.
Another reference to Hugh Massingberd here in an article. Note he also wrote many books including, in 1988, his book: Country houses and their owners.
This article (written just after the death of the previous incumbent in 2012) makes fascinating reading all about the family and even the will in some detail.
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