Cleveland Lodge, Great Ayton: Yorkshire estate with connections to Captain Cook and chocolate manufacturing up for sale for the first time since the 1840s

Cleveland Lodge in Great Ayton, on the edge of the North York Moors, was constructed in the 1840s for the Quaker banker and businessman Thomas Richardson, who invested in railways and ports.

Yet Richardson, a great benefactor of the village, died in 1853, and it passed to his cousin Edward Pease, and then to Edward’s son John, who acquired additional land in the local area. He in turn left the estate to his two daughters, one of whom, Sophia, married into the Fry family, chocolate manufacturers of the early 20th century. Her son Sir John Pease Fry lived at Cleveland Lodge from the turn of the 20th century until his death in 1957.

The property then passed to Sir John’s youngest son, Sir Wilfrid Fry, and his wife Lady Anne, whose grandfather was the famous chocolatier George Cadbury.

Sir Wilfrid died in 1987, and Lady Anne continued to live on the estate until her own death in 2001. A devout Quaker, she maintained her forebears’ tradition of serving the village.

Her passing meant that Cleveland Lodge was inherited by Sir Wilfrid’s niece Caroline Ward, as the Frys were childless. As part of the disposal of the Fry holdings, the 762-acred Roseberry estate was put up for sale by separate lots at auction – one of them being Aireyholme Farm, the childhood home of explorer Captain James Cook.

The Frys had purchased land at Roseberry at the turn of the 19th century and Sir Theodore Fry, a Liberal MP, lived there in the late 1900s.

Agents Robin Jessop are selling Cleveland Lodge, which comes with its own grouse moor and farmland, for £4.9million. The outbuildings include stables and the original estate joinery workshop. The grounds have a kitchen garden and tennis court – the latter being one of the few modern additions the Frys made in the post-war period.

The arable farms, woodland and grouse moor are available as separate lots.