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Retrenchment & Demolition

Many of the properties owned by the Leveson-Gower family still survive today, transformed into luxury hotels and sports institutes. Lands which the family owned in Shropshire and Staffordshire, such as Tittensor and Lilleshall, contain many landmarks relating them to the Leveson-Gower family.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Sutherland family withdrew from local politics and sold off much of their estates in Staffordshire and Shropshire. West Hill, the family’s mansion in Surrey, was sold in 1842, followed by the sale of Cliveden in Buckinghamshire in 1868. Stafford House was purchased by Lord Leverhulme, becoming Lancaster House in 1913.

Lands on the family’s estates in Staffordshire and Shropshire were also sold off during this period, and after unsuccessful negotiation to turn Trentham Hall into an educational institution, the family’s Staffordshire seat was demolished in 1912. Despite retrenchment and demolition, today Lilleshall Lodge is the home of the National Sports Centre and Trentham Gardens continues to flourish as an outstanding Staffordshire beauty spot.

Click on the links below to learn more about retrenchment and demolition in the Sutherland Papers.

The Sale of Lands in Cheddleton, 1834

The Sale of Hill Chorlton Farm, 1914

The Sale of the Ketley Estate, 1894

The Sale of West Hill, 1842

The Sale of Land in Caverswall, 1877

The Sale of Land in Lilleshall, 1915

The Sale of Land in Codsall, 1891

Selling Trentham Hall: An Educational Facility, 1905

From Trentham Hall to Trentham Gardens, 1925