Kelham has a long and rich history dating back a thousand years. The lands here were used by Saxon farmers before the Norman Conquest. In 1066, the Foljambe family came over from France with William the Conqueror, who gifted them lands at Averham and Kelham. It's believed Kelham remained as farms with a manor on site during this transition of power.

Kelham Manor was acquired by Sir William Sutton in 1580, but it wouldn't be until c.1663 when the first 'Grand' Hall was built. Kelham would play a unique role during the English Civil War, when King Charles I surrendered in nearby Southwell on 5th May 1647. Charles was then held prisoner here at Kelham Manor for several days after, and would often be allowed to pace up and down the guarded path outside. This path is known as 'The King's Walk' and we'll be investigating it to see if Charles I is really still here at Kelham. Following the Civil War, William's son Robert Sutton, 1st Baron Lexington upgraded the Hall, but tragically during the reign of William III & Mary II (1689-1702) the first Kelham Hall caught fire and burned down.

In 1730 the second Kelham Hall was built, where it was lived in by Lady Bridget Sutton, the great-grandaughter of Sir William Sutton. Bridget was the only surviving child of Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexington. On 27th August 1717, Bridget married John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland and had three children. The eldest child John Manners, Marquess of Granby, was a soldier at Culloden and in the Seven Years' War, but sadly didn't outlive his father, and so the Hall was passed on to the second eldest Robert Manners, but on one condition: he had to add Sutton to his name, which he did. Robert didn't marry and thus had no heir, so the estate passed on to his brother and last of the three children, George Manners-Sutton. George spent most of his life as a politician and Member of Parliament for Grantham, before passing away in his sleep at Kelham Hall in 1783.
 

John Henry Manners-Sutton (1822-1898) began renovating the Georgian Hall in 1843, commissioning Anthony Salvin to make the house more fitting for the time period. Salvin's idea was to create a Jacobean mansion, which he worked on for 3 years. John eventually disliked these changes the more he saw of it, and asked George Gilbert Scott to make additional alterations. But then came the second big fire:

           On 27th November 1857, the servants had just gone to bed when fiery smoke suddenly engulfed the south rooms and hallways. Mr and Mrs Manners-Sutton were away in Italy at the time, unaware that their beautiful home back in England had just gone up in flames. They left behind their two children who were in the Hall at the time. We know one was a little girl aged 3 and a half, and the other a young boy, but it's uncertain whether they both survived or perished; same with the servants. News of the disaster reached Naples, and both Mr and Mrs Manners-Sutton returned back to England immediately to inspect the damage.

George Gilbert Scott came up with a new extravagant design for a third Kelham Hall, the same High Victorian Gothic Hall which stands today. He completed the present Hall in 1863, an architectural beauty of magnificent proportions that was by far superior to any of its predecessors. And this time it was constructed using fire-resistant materials, preventing any further infernos that seemed to have plagued this land.

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In 1903, the Manners-Sutton family fell into financial difficulty with the cost of rebuilding Kelham Hall, and made the choice to move into a smaller property called Kelham House. They sold Kelham Hall to a Roman Catholic Order called 'The Society of the Sacred Mission', where a theological college was opened. The Monks and Students lived here and carried out their religious and educational practices, even holding masses inside the Great Chapel (now Great Hall), home of the second largest dome in the UK. Kelham Hall was also occupied by military personnel during World War 1 and World War 2, with the cellars below used for shelter and operations.

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