Brian Hodgson

Brian Hodgson, resident of the Grey House, was an innkeeper and business man, with fashionable inns at Stamford and Buxton and considerable investments in copper mining.

Brian Hodgson is an ancestor of the present Queen through his daughter who was married to a Bishop of London.

Brian Hodgson purchased The Grey House in 1754 from local lawyer Francis Higginbotham, who was forced to leave Ashbourne in a hurry, having incurred the displeasure of the local Squire Lord Okeover, for marrying his sister. 

Joseph Pickford was commissioned by Brian Hodgson to redesign the front of The Grey House. It is quite likely that the fact that a “tradesman” had a house with the latest fashions spurred the owner of The Mansion opposite to have his house remodelled in a very similar style, albeit in brick rather than stone.

One of the grandest churches in Derbyshire, with a slender spire of 212 feet. Referred to in the Doomsday book, the present church building dates from the mid 1200's and contains fine stained glass and monuments.

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An imposing stone faced Gentleman’s house with probably the best Georgian frontage in Ashbourne.

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