Otterington Hall in South Otterington, near Northallerton, was associated with the Furness family, who made their fortune in Hartlepool, for most of the 20th century.

Today, the estate consists of a Grade II-listed main house with nine bedrooms, four cottages, three-bedroom staff annexe, coach-house with gym, outbuildings, stabling and tennis court. There are 90 acres of grounds and gardens, including woodland, a lake, pheasant shoot and the park.

The Georgian hall, which has Victorian additions, was originally the home of Captain John George Boss, a decorated naval officer of the Napoleonic Wars.

He was succeeded by the Aikenheads, local landowners and magistrates, and by 1913, the Wainman family was living there. Captain Philip Wainman was killed early on during World War One, and his American wife then took their children, including newborn Alec, later a Spanish Civil War volunteer and photographer, to live in Canada.

The estate had fallen into decay during the war, and at its end in 1918 it was purchased by the wife of the first Furness baronet, Sir Stephen, Eleanor. Sir Stephen was an MP and chairman of Furness Withy & Company shipbuilders, but died in 1914 in an accident aged just 42. His widow moved from Tunstall Grange in Hartlepool to Otterington with their four children, mostly in their teens – Eleanor Mary and her two older and one younger brothers. A year later, the family had ended their interest in the business, which continued until the 1980s.

They became country gentry, with Eleanor and her second son Stephen planting a ‘magical’ yew topiary in the gardens which twice featured in Country Life magazine. The 100ft gallery is considered to be unique and remains one of England’s finest. The kitchen garden still produces soft fruit and vegetables.

Eleanor Mary – referred to as Mary in a report of her brother Christopher’s wedding in 1930 – did not marry and was well-known locally. She re-established the Hurworth Hunt, which had disbanded in the late 1920s, and served as its master from 1936 until 1971. She was still living in the hall in 1939, her mother having died three years earlier, and the family were at the hall in the late 1940s. She died in 1990, and the descendants of her brother Christopher still live and farm in the village today.

Otterington Hall’s most recent owner is former Mayor of Middlesbrough and hedge fund manager Andy Preston. It is for sale with Savills with a guide price of £4million.

Otterington Hall: Yorkshire country house once owned by famous shipbuilding family for sale for only the second time since 1926