In 1632, the manor of Bloxholm passed to the Right Worshipful Nathaniel Hubbard. The next owner was Cyprian Thornton. He bought the manor and that of Digby adjoining it, and built the hall and planted trees sometime in the mid to late 17th century. The hall was built in the Artisan Mannerism style, and was set in landscaped gardens. Cyprian Thornton was a man of considerable wealth but was unfortunate in that he invested in the South Sea Scheme and lost his money. The estate passed through many hands until it was acquired by General Robert Manners, a grandson of the 2nd Duke of Rutland. The hall was altered and enlarged in 1772, when the house was given a stone peacock (the General's crest) on its central gable by Mrs. Coade, and a north wing (designed by Lewis Vulliamy) added. From 1825 to 1827, the Manners family extensively 'enlarged and beautified' the hall and constructed several outbuildings, including a stableblock to the north (PRN 63931) and an estate cottage to the south (PRN 63933). Also at this time the gardens were enlarged, with futher tree planting, the laying out of a formal southern approach to the house and the construction of an ornamental pond. Remnants of the gardens survive today. The hall passed through a number of hands until it was abandoned sometime in the late 1940s. The hall was partially demolished in 1963 leaving only the lower north wing still standing, which survives today as Bloxholm Hall Farmhouse (PRN 62798). {1}{2} The mid 17th century house erected for Cyprian Thornton has been demolished. Its style was that christened 'Artisan Mannerism'. The south front consisted of five bays, a semi-basement, three storeys and an attic. The Venetian window with suiggly lugged and half-scrolled pilasters was highly uncommon in domestic architecture at the time. The unusually high and big dormer windows in the east and north fronts were quoined with rustication and topped by alternate triangular and segmental pediments. The centre gable once supported a magnificent stone peacock dated 1772 and one of Mrs Coade's finest works. {3} White's Directory of 1856 states 'Bloxholm or Bloxham is the property and manor of the Rt. Hon. Robert Adam Christopher Nisbet Hamilton, MP of Bloxholm Hall, a fine mansion, which was enlarged and beautified in 1825, and has large gardens and woody pleasure grounds, commanding extensive prospects over the cultivated heath on the west and the now fertile fens on the east.' {4}