Crofton Hall - (13 of 17)

Crofton Hall was built by Joshua Wilson (1706–1778) of Pontefract around 1750, in the style of a Georgian villa. The Wilsons did not live in the Hall permanently until Joshua’s grandson, Sir Henry Wright Wilson, inherited it in 1797. Sir Henry primarily resided at his London home in Grosvenor Park, and Crofton Hall was leased until 1876. Henry Smithson Lee Wilson inherited the Hall on 15 July 1869 but leased it to Edward Tew, a well-known banker, until Tew’s death in November 1876.

In 1884, H. S. L. Wilson began to extend the Hall. He demolished the two original wings and replaced them with larger ones, while also Victorianising the central villa itself. By 1886 the alterations were complete, and Wilson and his family left their London home to move permanently to Crofton.

In November 1921, following the death of his father H. S. L. Wilson, Lieutenant Colonel H. L. B. Wilson succeeded to the Crofton estate. He sold the estate in 1935 to Mr. George Kenyon Benton as one lot. Mr. Benton subsequently began breaking up the estate, and in 1941 the Hall was taken over by the Army. After the Second World War, the Hall was used as a school known as Brown’s School, and later as a private school run by Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Mitchell until July 1981, when the building was demolished. A housing estate, now known as the Ashdene Estate, was later built over most of the park.