Nunnington Hall. Nunnington Hall is a country house situated in the English county of North Yorkshire. The river Rye, which gives its name to the local area, Ryedale, runs past the house, flowing away from the village of Nunnington. A stone bridge over the river separates the grounds of the house from the village. Above, a ridge known as Caulkley's Bank lies between Nunnington and the Vale of York to the south. The Vale of Pickering and the North York Moors lie to the north and east. Nunnington Hall is owned, conserved and managed as a visitor attraction by the National Trust. The first Nunnington Hall was mentioned in the thirteenth century and the site has had many different owners. They include William Parr, Dr Robert Huicke, Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston, the Rutson family and the Fife family. The present building is a combination of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century work. Most of the building seen today was created during the 1680s, when Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston, was its owner. In the medieval period, the land belonged to the wealthy St Mary's Abbey in York. Nunnington takes its name from a nunnery, likely in the present location of Nunnington Hall, which existed prior to the Norman conquest before being dissolved around 1200. According to the Domesday Book, the manor of Nunnigtune in the 11th century included Stonegrave, Ness, Holme and Wykeham. William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, lord of the manor of Nunnington and brother of queen consort Catherine Parr, built the oldest parts of the surviving house of Nunnington, which now form part of the west front. Following the forfeiture of the estate in 1553, Nunnington was again subject to let. One of the tenants was Dr Robert Huicke, who was physician to both Catherine Parr and Elizabeth I. Dr Huicke was to be the one to tell the Queen that she would never have children. Huicke never lived at Nunnington however and the estate was managed by stewards. The sub-lease was granted to Thomas Norcliffe in 1583 and the family made many alterations over the next 60 years. In 1603, George Watkins and others were granted a lease of the manor for 31 years. After 25 years, however, it was granted to Edward Ditchfield and others of the City of London, who sold it the same year for E3,687 to John Holloway who held the manor in 1630. By 1655 the manor had been sold for E9,500 by Humphrey Thayer to Ranald Graham, a merchant of Lewisham. Ranald was succeeded by his nephew Sir Richard Graham of Netherby, who was created Viscount Preston in 1681. He was attainted in 1689 for attempting to join James II in France and his lands and property were confiscated, but later returned after he was pardoned. He was succeeded by his son and heir Edward, the 2nd Viscount and he in turn by his son Charles, 3rd and last Viscount Preston. Charles' heirs on his death in 1739 were his aunts, Mary Graham and Catherine, Lady Widdrington, who were granted joint possession of the manor of Nunnington in 1748. Mary died unmarried and Lady Widdrington left her estates to Sir Bellingham Graham, Bt., of Norton Conyers. The property then descended in the Norton Conyers Graham family until 1839, when it was sold to William Rutson of Newby Wiske, the son of a Liverpool merchant. The hall was inherited in 1920 by Rutson's great-niece Margaret Rutson, who had married Ronald D'Arcy Fife. They undertook a major renovation of the property in the 1920s using the architect Walter Brierley. Margaret bequeathed Nunnington Hall, much of its contents, and its gardens to the National Trust upon her death in 1952, along with E25,000 for the upkeep of the property. The Hall stands within 8 acres of organically managed grounds, with the main walled garden lying to the south of the building. The Walled Garden includes lawns, orchards, formal rose beds, mixed borders, a Tea Garden, and an Iris Garden. The orchards are managed as wildflower meadows containing flowers such as cowslip, primrose, snake's head fritillary, buttercup and camassia all growing below the fruit trees of which most are traditional Ryedale varieties. Another feature of the gardens are the resident peacocks. On 10 June 2007 Bluey, head of the peacock family, died under suspicious circumstances. Today visitors enter by a modest entrance and porch to the Stone Hall. This west-facing room is in the oldest part of the building and it dates from the sixteenth century. On the walls you can see preserved animal skins as trophies, a collection of arms and armour and also some large brown-wood furniture. This space comprises the National Trust's reception area, and it is lit by two high windows which face a gravelled area to the west.