For our American friends Keele’s Heritage: The Sneyd Family and the Keele Estate Keele University is situated on an estate of over 630 acres with extensive woods, several small lakes and landscaped parkland. It was owned formerly by the Sneyd family. Keele village (cy-hill or cow hill in Anglo-Saxon) is five miles from the centre of the city of Stoke-on-Trent and just outside the boundary of the historic market town of Newcastle under Lyme. The Sneyd family can be traced back in North Staffordshire to the late 13th century, but they came into possession of the Keele estate in 1544. Before the Sneyds the area had been owned for many years by the Knights Templar, a medieval Military Order. The first Keele Hall was built in 1580 and the present Hall was built on the same site in 1860. The Sneyds were an influential and long-established local landowning family - they gained in wealth after the Industrial Revolution, partly through the discovery of extensive coalfields under their land. Keele Hall was rebuilt in 1860 by Ralph Sneyd (1793-1870) to the design of the celebrated Victorian architect Antony Salvin. The grounds and gardens were magnificently laid out around it and many interesting architectural, horticultural and landscape features survive today or are awaiting restoration. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the hall was let to the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, who entertained King Edward VII, the only reigning monarch known to have visited Keele before the founding of the University in 1949. For much of the twentieth century it remained unoccupied, until military forces from many nationalities were stationed on the estate during the Second World War. The full story can be found in the Brief History. You can view a selection of photographs from the Sneyd Family Album courtesy of Mr John Kolbert of Keele.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 00:20:07 +0000
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