Lot Essay
Originally an Elizabethan Manor built by Sir Ralph Bourchier in 1556, the present hall was created in 1716 for his grandson John Bourchier. In 1827 Beningbrough Hall passed from the Bourchiers to their relatives the Dawnay family with whom it remained until 1916. Lady Chesterfield, a wealthy heiress, bought and renovated the Hall, filling it with pictures and furniture from her ancestral home Holme Lacy, Herefordshire. The National Trust acquired Beningbrough in 1958 after the death of Lady Chesterfield. Today the hall is home to an important collection of 17th and 18th Century English portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery.