Tempsford Hall

Entrance to Tempsford Hall

Tempsford Hall is a country house in Tempsford, Bedfordshire.

History

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The original hall was built in 1769 for Sir Gillies Payne; it remained in the Payne family until 1824 when it was sold to Colonel William Stuart.[1] Following a fire in November 1898 the house was rebuilt and completed in 1903. In 1933 Millicent the last of the Stuart family died and the hall and estate passed to a second cousin Kathleen Ann Pole Wynne, who had been born a member of the Stuart family.[1] In 1938 the Hall was leased by Dr Henry Ward Hales who used it as a clinic. He later purchased the freehold in 1946.[1]

During World War II it was used by the Special Operations Executive as an agent reception and pre-flight preparation centre.[2]

In 1964 Hales sold it to the Kier Group construction business.[1] In October 2019, financially troubled Kier announced it was selling its Tempsford Hall headquarters to raise cash from its property assets,[3] and head office functions were transferred to Kier's Manchester office in April 2020.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Millennium Garden". Tempsford Museum and Archives. Archived from the original on 2019-07-10. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  2. ^ "People's War". BBC. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  3. ^ Morby, Aaron (25 October 2019). "Kier to sell historic country HQ to pay down debt". Construction Enquirer. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  4. ^ "Kier moves north". The Construction Index. 18 April 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2020.

52°10′03″N 0°17′53″W / 52.1675°N 0.2980°W / 52.1675; -0.2980