Branston Hall is a country house in the village of Branston, Lincolnshire, England. The hall, a Grade II listed building, is set in 88 acres (3.56 square kilometres) of wooded parkland and lakes. Originally commissioned as the family seat of the Melville family, the house became an RAF hospital during the Second World War, and then a sanatorium run by Lindsey County Council. It lay derelict in the 1970s and 1980s, underwent restoration and conversion into a retirement home in the late 1980s, and is now restored and converted into a three-star hotel. Weddings are often held at the hotel. Designed by John Macvicar Anderson in 1885, the house was built in Elizabethan Revival style. Early history Branston Hall Grounds were the inherited estate of Sir Cecil Wray 11th Baronet (1678–1736) (a descendant of Catherine Parr), whose family had been Baronets and parliamentarians in Lincolnshire since 1611 (see also Wray Baronets), and whose main residence was in Fillingham, north of Lincoln. Busts of Sir Cecil and his wife Mary can be seen in Branston All Saints Church. The property was inherited from Sir Cecil by his daughter out of wedlock, Anne Casey. Anne Casey married Lord Vere Bertie (1712–1768), the son of the 1st Duke of Ancaster. In 1735 Lord Vere Bertie built Branston old hall (a building which preceded the current Branston Hall, and which was located on a different part of the grounds, beside Hall Lane) The couple had four children. Lord Vere Bertie died in 1768 and his wife Anne continued to live at the house until her death in 1779. The property was then passed to their daughter Albinia who had married George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire. In 1829, the old hall was advertised for sale and it seems that shortly after this it was purchased by Alexander Leslie Melville (1800–1881). The Leslie-Melville family Alexander Leslie Melville (1800–1881) was born in 1800 in Scotland. His father was Alexander Leslie Melville, the 7th Earl of Leven. In 1825, he married Charlotte Smith, the daughter of Samuel Smith M.P, of Woodhall Park, Hertfordshire. The couple had twelve children. Their eldest son was Alexander Samuel Leslie Melville (1829–1919) and he inherited Branston old hall when his father died in 1881. He was born in 1829 and in 1858 he married Albinia Frances Broderick, daughter of Charles Brodrick, 6th Viscount Midleton. The couple had seven children. In 1837 Alexander