© Copyright Peter and
licensed for reuse
under this Creative CommonsLicence.
The Preston Hall
we all now know and love as one of the region’s premier museum attractions was
once, of course, a private residence. Built in 1825 to displace the original
manor house (which itself was not demolished until 1974), it was rather less
grand than the structure we see today. When David Burton Fowler raised the new
pile it had little of its ‘modern’ trimmings.
In 1882, the
hall was sold by the Fowler family to Robert Ropner, a high-profile immigrant
shipping magnate. A Prussian by birth, Ropner spent years building up his
business in, first, Hartlepool , and then Stockton (from 1888). He moved into politics, where he was Conservative MP
for Stockton during 1900-10, was knighted (in 1901) and then raised to the
baronetcy.
Ropner spent
many years developing Preston Hall. He changed its entrance from the river side
to the existing position, added a ballroom, as well as an elaborate porch and
winter garden/conservatory (latter two illustrated above). He also constructed
many of the estate’s outbuildings for his staff and servants.
Sir Robert
Ropner died, aged 85, in 1924. The family lived on in the house until 1937, and
it eventually passed into the hands of Stockton-on-Tees Council in 1947. It
then re-opened as the borough’s museum in 1953.
The museum is
presently undergoing a multi-million pound facelift, and is set to reopen in
the Summer of 2012.
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