to be built in the nearby village of Aldbrough St John, which manor was largely owned by the Dukes and traditionally had been the source of workers and services for the estate. An interesting record of Stanwick Hall and its estate was made in the February 1900 edition of the magazine Country Life Illustrated', which featured a lavishly illustrated article entitled 'Stanwick Park, Yorkshire – the seat of Eleanor, Duchess of Northumberland". It included seven photographs of the house and gardens with statuary and ornamental ironwork. Only one of the photographs shows a person, namely Mr William Higgie, her head gardener, employed in 1866 and who remained in her service until shortly after her death in 1911. The Dowager Duchess Eleanor lived to the age of 90, spending about half the year at Stanwick, when she saw to the spiritual needs of the community, reducing the number of pubs to one, supporting the school and dispensing charity to the deserving. After her death in 1911 the house was rarely used by the family, and served briefly as a hospital for wounded soldiers from the First World War. With the severe imposition of death duties after that war the upkeep of the house and grounds became uneconomic and in 1923 the then Duke put the estate up for sale. The farms and land found buyers but the mansion house did not and was demolished. Most of the ancillary buildings were however sold: the kitchen garden became a commercial enterprise and the cottages and outbuildings were converted into modern dwellings. The result was a small nuclear village of about ten houses which has since expanded slightly but still remains within the original estate boundaries. The neighbouring estate of Carlton, half a mile to the north-east, had been subsumed by Stanwick Hall early in the nineteenth century and had served as the residence of the head estate manager, for stables and kennels and for associated staff accommodation. Its fate echoed that of Stanwick: the Hall was demolished by fire and is now similarly represented by a group of refurbished buildings, including icehouse and walled gardens. The only original dwellings are the gamekeeper's and kennelman's. References External links The Stanwick St John Village Website Lost Heritage: England's lost country houses, Stanwick Hall Villages in North Yorkshire Civil parishes in North Yorkshire