The art of revival

Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, part I The seat of Sir William and Lady Proby, In the first of two articles, Jeremy Musson looks at the exemplary revival of both a house and its outstanding collections on the eve of its handover to the next generation

- Jeremy Musson

ELTON HALL, near Peterborough, is a house of many faces. It is formal and Classical on the approach, yet reveals on inspection a complex architectural history stretching back to the Middle Ages. All this with gardens that extend and frame it with a kind of painterly stillness. Inside, the house has one of the best private art collections in the East of England.

COUNTRY LIFE last visited Elton in 1988, when an article by Gervase Jackson-Stops campaigned against a proposed new road. Before that, in 1957, were three fulsome pieces by Arthur Oswald, which ignored the division of half the house into flats. Since 1980, Sir William and Lady Proby have not only reversed that subdivision and restored the complex roof and stonework, but also laid out new gardens, rehung pictures and redecorated the principal apartments (Fig 1). This year, they will hand over to their eldest daughter Alexandra—together with her husband, Rory Aitken, and their children—and retire to a new house on the estate. What better moment to celebrate and record their achievement?

There is also a wider story to tell here. The estate, house and collections, as well as opening to the public, have all provided valuable experience for Sir William and Lady Proby too, which they have readily applied over decades to the public realm. Sir William served as president of the Historic Houses Association in 1994–99 and as chairman of the National Trust in 2003–08; he was also chairman of the National Portrait Gallery from 2011 to 2017. Lady Proby is a Syndic of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, chair of its Development Trust and a member of the Government’s Acceptance in Lieu panel.