Leighton Hall is an estate located to the east of Welshpool in the historic county of Montgomeryshire, now Powys, in Wales. Leighton Hall is a listed grade I property. It is located on the opposite side of the valley of the river Severn to Powis Castle. The Leighton Hall Estate is particularly notable for the hall which was decorated and furnished by the Craces to designs by Pugin in his Houses of Parliament style, for the Home Farm, a model farm, which was to be in the forefront of the Victorian industrialised High Farming, and for the gardens which have their own Grade I listing on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. Leighton Hall was also the birthplace of the much disparaged hybrid Cupressocyparis leylandii hedge tree. The hall is in private ownership and is not accessible to the public, although it can still be viewed from the road. The home farm is currently under restoration.

History The Earlier House and Deer Park The estate was originally in the ownership of the Corbett or Corbet family and passed by marriage to the Lloyds. A half-timbered house was built for Humphrey Lloyd, High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in about 1541. Lloyd was elected the M.P. for Montgomeryshire in 1545 and 1547.A drawing of the house exists in the Vaynor papers in the National Library of Wales The house then passed back to Sir Uvedale Corbet in around 1650 and a detailed map of the Leighton Estates in 1663, by William Fowler, exists in the Powis Castle Archives at the National Library of Wales.Silvester R. Mapping Montgomeryshire:Estate Maps from 1589–1840 Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol 100, 2012, 173, fig 2 The map shows The Inheritance of Sir Richard Corbett and the Manor of Leighton. A deer park is believed to have been established in the north park within this period, the park itself extending west and south to Kingswood village. Sir Richard, Uvedale Corbet's son, took advantage of the wooded eastern slopes of the park in the early eighteenth century, felling large areas of oak for sale to the Admiralty.The Corbet and Lloyd ownership of Leighton is discussed in detail in (Rev) George Sandford, The Devolutions of the Manor, or Reputed Lordship, of Leighton, Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol13, 333–354

Purchase by the Naylors In 1845, the Leighton Hall estate was purchased from the Corbett family of Longnor Hall, Shropshire, by the Liverpool banker, Christopher Leyland. In 1847, he gave it as a wedding present to his nephew John Naylor (1813–1889), who then proceeded to rebuild the house and estate at a reputed cost of £275,000, plus an additional £200,000 on the farm technology. After John Naylor's death in 1889, his widow continued to live at Leighton until 1909, when parts of the estate were sold. A second sale in 1931, when the house, park, estate buildings and woodlands were sold, saw its final demise as a single entity.

The Leyland/Naylor Family The great wealth of the Naylor family was derived from the slave trading and banking activities of Thomas Leyland (1752–1827). Christopher Bullin, a Staffordshire Ware merchant, married Thomas Leyland's sister Margaret. Bullin became bankrupt in 1778 and Leyland acquired his premises. Thomas Leyland appears to have had a great regard for his sister's two sons, Richard and Christopher Bullin and her daughter Dorothy. In 1807 Thomas Leyland set up with Richard Bullin, the Leyland and Bullin Bank in Liverpool, which was changed in 1809 to Leyland and Bullins when Christopher Bullin became a partner. In 1809 Dorothy married John Naylor of Hartford Hill, Cheshire. Hartford Hill was then in Great Budworth Parish, but became part of Hartford parish, and Hartford Hill became known as Hartford Grange and is presently the Grange School.

John Naylor and Dorothy had four children, Elizabeth, Thomas, John and Richard Christopher. On his death in 1827 Thomas Leyland instructed that his property should go to the lawful male heirs of his nephews Richard and Christopher Bullin, and, failing that, to the male heirs of his niece Dorothy, namely Thomas, John and Richard Christopher Naylor. After the death of Christopher Bullin in 1849, Thomas, John and Richard Christopher Naylor became partners in the Bank, after being sent to Eton and Cambridge. Thomas Naylor inherited name of Leyland and the wealth that went with it, including Walton Hall, Liverpool. Richard Christopher Naylor purchased Hooton Hall in 1849, which he extensively re-built and also established an important horse racing stud. He was very involved in the banking side of Leyland and Bullins Bank, and built the Albany in Liverpool. In 1843, he also acquired Nantclwyd Hall in Denbighshire, which has become the main family seat. Richard's branch of the family now also own Milton Hall in Cambridgeshire.

John Naylor (1813–1889) John Naylor was born to John Naylor and Dorothy Bullin on 15 April 1813 in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. He was three years old when his father died and the family went to live with Dorothy's brother Richard Bullin in Liverpool. John was educated at Eton College around 1826–32 and then spent three years at Trinity College, Cambridge. On 20 August 1846, John Naylor married Georgiana Edwards, the daughter of John Edwards of Ness Strange, Shropshire. Georgiana was descended from the Duke of Athol. John and Georgiana had ten children: Dora b.1847, Margaret b.1848, Christopher John b.1849, Rowland b.1851, Emily b.1853, Georgina b.1854, John [Jack] b.1856, Frances b.1857, Eva b.1859 & Maud b.1863.

Following their marriage, John and Georgiana went to live at Liscard Manor, Wallasey. It seems that John was also developing his farming interests at Hartford Hill. In 1844, John became a partner of Leyland Bullins Bank on the death of his uncle Richard Leyland (Bullin) From Richard Leyland, John inherited the Brynllywarch Estate in Kerry in Montgomeryshire. In 1845, John's uncle Christopher Leyland (Bullin) purchased the Leighton Estate for £85,503 12s 7p, which he gave to John and Georgiana as a wedding present. On 13 July 1889, John Naylor died at the age of seventy-six.

Christopher John Naylor/Leyland (1849–1926) Christopher John Naylor a naval officer and silviculturist, was born at Liscard, Wallasey, Cheshire, on 19 September 1849, the eldest of three sons and the seven daughters of John Naylor and Georgiana. He grew up at Leighton. Naylor inherited a love of the sea and sailing from his father (a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and owner of the schooner Sabrina). He entered the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, at the age of thirteen. He sailed as a midshipman on the Victoria, a three-decker, fitted with steam engines, which was the flagship of the commander-in-chief, Mediterranean. He saw brief service in the Pacific before joining the frigate Liverpool. Finally he went to the China Seas in temporary command of a gunboat. He left the Navy as a sub-lieutenant in 1872. In 1874 he married Everhilda Elizabeth Creyke (1851–1890), of Rawcliffe Hall, in Yorkshire, and they lived at Trelystan, close to Leighton Hall. His daughter, Hilda Georgina Leyland, married Richard Vernon Cholmondeley. He was a partner at Leyland and Bullins bank from 1879 until 1901. In 1889 Christopher John Naylor inherited the Leighton and Brynllywarch estates from his father, which he made over to his brothers and their heirs in 1891, on the death of his uncle Thomas Leyland. He also inherited the Haggerston Castle estate and changed his name from Naylor to Leyland in 1893. He moved to Haggerston and set out to create an estate with buildings that would more than rival those at Leighton. As a result of Christopher John inheriting Haggerston, John (known as Jack Naylor) became the owner of Leighton Hall and his brother Rowland Naylor the owner of the Brynllyarch Estate in Kerry, Powys. Nantclwyd Hall was now given to Thomas Leyland, son of Thomas Leyland, who had been disinherited. Haggerston, Leighton and Brynllywarch, were kept within the Leyland entailed estates, but Nantclwyd appears to have been outside the Entailed Estates. John (Jack) Naylor died in 1906 and his son John (Murray) Naylor inherited Leighton Hall.

Disposal and later ownership By 1930, the Leyland entailed estates were experiencing considerable financial difficulties and the Leighton Estate, and Haggerston were all put up for auction while Brynllywarch had been sold in 1920. At Leighton, the North West Park was broken up into large and small parcels of land and with their associated dwellings auctioned off in separate lots to private buyers. The Home Farm and associated lands were sold to the Montgomeryshire County Council, who had already purchased the Brynllywarch Estate. A separate auction sale of the furnishings and furniture of the Hall was held by Harrods. The Hall and Gardens were purchased back by the daughter of John Naylor, Georgina, who continued to live at the Hall until her death in 1950. Leighton Hall was then sold to the Canadian Senator and newspaper owner Rupert Davies, who owned Leighton Hall until his death in 1967. It was subsequently used as a school and an arts foundation and was sold again in 1996.

Leighton Hall The hall was rebuilt on the site of the former house in a Gothic style between 1850 and 1856."Scourfield and Haslam ", 2013, 131–2. The work was supervised by Liverpool architect W H Gee, possibly to the designs of James Kellaway Colling, who worked extensively for the Naylor family.Attention is drawn to Colling's designs for Askwicke Hall, Marshfield, which was built at the same time and has similar detailing and octagonal tower The house consists of a main range with a clock tower in front, which provides an entrance porch. A short library wing is to the south and a longer north wing. Behind the main range, parallel to the north wing, is an L-plan service wing incorporating the main stairway. This forms two sides of a courtyard at the rear. The hall is full-height, the wings are 2-storey with attics. To the east is the tall six storey octagonal tower with a projecting circular staircase, built in 1854–5, which dominates the house.For an aerial view and description see:Musson C, 2011, "Montgomeryshire Past and Present from the Air", The Powysland Club, 106, Col. Plate The house is built of brick, but the main elevations are faced in coursed, rock-faced stone ashlar dressings from Cefn near Minera. The stone chimney stacks have tall patterned chimneys. These were probably made by John Marriott Blashfield of Stamford, Lincolnshire, who supplied terracotta for the Naylors at Garthmyl Hall, Berriew.

The interior designs were by Augustus Pugin in Pugin's Houses of Parliament style.Pugin's interior designs for Leighton Hall are in the Victoria and Albert Museum with the Craces arranging the interior furnishings and decoration.Aldrich M.(ed), "The Craces:Royal Decorators", Murray, London, 1990Aldrich M. and Shifman B., 2005, "Crace, Pugin, and the Furnishing of John Naylor's Leighton Hall", Furniture History, Vol. 41. There are Minton floor tiles and stained glass probably by Forrest and Bromley who made the glass for Leighton church. The great hall was designed to display Naylor's collection of paintings and sculpture, which included works by Turner, Landseer, Delaroche and Ansdell. The Great hall has a hammerbeam roof with a frieze of Welsh family coats of arms and a fireplace by Pugin. The Great Hall also contained sculptures by Siddon and McBride which are now in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. The hall is a Grade I listed building.

Gardens