Country homes can be lovely places to walk around or a family day out with a picnic. 

In winter or summer, they can be the perfect places to take in history and a flashback to the past, highlighting all of the heritage and the people who once called these places home.

However, some country homes have long since been demolished - with just the foundations, an outhouse, or been replaced completely with a new development. 

We delve into the heritage of four country homes in North Yorkshire that have been lost over time.

Here are the four:

Rounton Grange

The Northern Echo:

Situated near Northallerton, Rounton Grange was a grand Victorian-style country home that was owned by a man from Middlesbrough, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell.

The estate was bought by Sir Isaac in 1870, with the mansion built using money that Sir Isaac had made through his iron and steel-making businesses.

When Bell died in 1904 further work was carried out by Webb’s protégé George Jack.

However, this line of wealth eventually ran out and his family couldn't afford to run the country home any longer and abandoned it. 

The story doesn't end there, though. During the First World War, Rounton Grange was used as an Italian prisoner-of-war camp. 

After that, a buyer was sought for the property, with it being offered to the National Trust, but no buyer was found - so it was reduced to rubble in 1954. 

Gatherley Castle

The Northern Echo:

If you drive towards Scotch Corner, you may notice the service station with its hotel, petrol station and shops - but once upon a time, it housed Gatherley Castle.

Once built in 1830, its first resident was Henry de Burgh Lawson; a naval architect and inventor of improvements to ironclad ships.’ 

In 1900 Gatherley was bought by the daughter of iron magnate, William Barningham. When she died in 1915 the great house stood empty and abandoned.

In 1963 the land was bought to make way for the building of the A1. 

Thirkleby Park

The Northern Echo:

Thirkleby was owned by the Frankland family for over 300 years, who developed it and made several additions to it.

This began with William Frankland, who started the enclosure of Great Thirkleby in 1668, with his son Sir Thomas creating a park and garden between 1699 and 1720. When Sir Thomas inherited in 1784, both the house and the designed landscape were out of fashion. He demolished the old hall and commissioned the architect James Wyatt to build a new hall with associated buildings.

In the decades that came after, it was further expanded on, with Robert Frankland Russell and their daughter-in-law, enlarging the Hall.

Their grandson, Ralph Payne-Gallwey, was the last of the family to live at Thirkleby. 

However, in 1927, the Hall was demolished but Wyatt’s stables, lodge and the shell of the walled kitchen garden remain along with much of the landscaping including the lake and plantations.

Stanwick Hall 

The Northern Echo:

While Stanwick Hall was based near Richmond, the North Yorkshire estate was the estate of the Dukes of Northumberland. 

Considering they owned five country homes, they eventually couldn't afford all of them. 

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After reviewing all five estates, they kept their Alnwick base, Syon Park in London, Keilder Castle in Northumberland and Albury Park in Surrey; putting Stanwick up for sale in 1921. 

Northallerton timber merchant Tim Place bought Stanwick but sold it on again for demolition.

There are scarce records of the Hall - but it's understood it was demolished by 1932.