Since the Doomsday Book, Snelston has gone from Abbey owned land through a succession of manorial ownership. It has been connected to many local families including the de Ferrers’, Montgomery’s, Okeover’s, Bassett’s and Bennett’s. The parish has always had strong connections with Norbury which was then a powerful manor. In 1682 Robert Docksey acquired the estate and the village entered a period of continuous ownership and development. In 1769 William Bowyer of Roston bought the estate and through him and various failures of inheritance and legal disputes the estate came into the ownership of John Harrison in the early 1800’s, he was married to Elizabeth Bowyer-Evans a descendant of William Bowyer.

John Harrison’s wealth came from his father’s foundry business in Derby and he was a successful lawyer during the Napoleonic Wars. He redeveloped the village, built the current network of roads and a new Hall. He also added to his property and at the time Snelston become the centre of a considerable estate taking in various lands and properties in Edlaston, Wyaston, Yeaveley, Clifton & Compton, Norbury & Roston, Cubley, Marston Montgomery and further afield. The estate passed via the marriage of his daughter into the Stanton family in 1906. The 5^th generation of the Stanton family retains the estate and the Lordship of the Manor.

The Snelston we know and love today can be attributed to John Harrison acquiring the estate and following an extensive phase of completely rebuilding the village and developing the landscape. Harrison commissioned L.N. Cottingham the well respected and pioneering Gothic Revival Architect to build him a new house and develop a village worthy of his status. Previous manor houses had been built and destroyed over many years and there was no property of any significance apart from a small hall which was incorporated into the new Hall. As for the village it would have consisted of very poor housing spread along the brook which were prone to flooding. The crowning glory of Cottingham and Harrison partnership was Snelston Hall, completed in 1828 in the increasingly popular Gothic Revival style. I am sure that client and architect were spurred on by the building of Alton Abbey the forerunner to Alton Towers and nearby Ilam Hall. The house was a triumph architecturally and was 30 years ahead of its time. The Hall was constructed from Hollington sandstone and featured intricate masonry, with battlements, buttresses, towers, mullioned windows and elaborate heraldic stained glass. The surrounding land was landscaped into a very attractive parkland with suitable plantations including a wood of 80 Monkey Puzzle trees, lodges and private drives leading to the hall and its extensive gardens. The Stanton family did further work in the 1900’s including the creation of the lake and garden terraces. This wonderful house did not stand for long and in 1951 after 123 years at the heart of the estate it was demolished as it was impractical to modern life. There is no doubt that if it had survived it would be one of the finest and most complete examples of early Gothic Revival domestic architecture in the UK. The current Snelston Hall was created out of Cottingham’s stable block reusing many materials from the demolished hall.

Such a grand house required an estate to support it and Cottingham designed the bulk of the village we see today. He employed the full breadth of popular architectural styles including Cottage Orné, Romantic Gothic, Tudor and Elizabethan. Many of the properties feature Tudor style chimneys, Gothic windows, timber framing and Flemish bond. The Snelston Inn, subsequently the Stanton Arms and now Oldfield House is the most prominent of the village properties along with the Old Post Office, the School and the Gate Lodges. He also rebuilt some of the older properties most notably Keepers Cottage and Smithy Cottage where the old stone bases can still be seen. The other house of note is School Farm, another older property extensively rebuilt by Cottingham.

The village school was funded by the estate and closed in the 1920s. The village had three pubs, the previously mentioned Stanton Arms, the Smithy tavern just opposite and the Queen Adelaide on Snelston Common – all sadly long closed. The Stanton Arms uniquely had a six-day licence, due to Florence Stanton disapproving of drinking on the Sabbath.

The visually the village has changed little since this time with only three new houses been built since the 1960s. What has changed is that many of the farms are now private homes and their barns converted into additional homes.