Brockhall, Northamptonshire
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Brockhall Hall in the January sun |
Brockhall is a
village in the
Daventry district of the county of
Northamptonshire in
England. Brockhall like many estate villages is a small settlement based around the hall.
Brockhall was originally built by Edward Eyton who later in 1652 sold the house to Thomas Thornton of Newnham; Thornton was a lawyer and as also the Recorder of Daventry. A descendant of his, Thomas Reeve Thornton (d. 1862) married Susannah Fremeaux, the heiress of her grandfather James Fremeaux of
Kingsthorpe (d. 1799).
Fremeaux was a
Huguenot merchant who had been naturalised as a British citizen in 1752 and had through marriage acquired the Cooke estate at Kingsthorpe in 1762. The Thorntons remained at Brockhall until 1969. In 1978 upon the death of Col. Thomas Anson Thornton the male line became extinct.
Brockhall Hall is now divided up into a number of residential flats.
The house is reputed to be haunted by a white lady - this might be an owner's wife who committed suicide in the 1780s.
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Its church
