Heslington Hall, as it now stands, is a twentieth-century modification of a typical small Elizabethan country house rebuilt in the nineteenth century. The original house, completed about 1568 to the design of a now unknown architect, was built for Thomas Eynns (Eames, Eymis) and his wife Elizabeth (daughter of Sir Edward Neville). As Secretary and Keeper of the Seal to the Council of the North, Eynns, who came from a Shropshire family, was able to acquire both a moderate fortune and former monastic lands at Lowthorpe, Bugthorpe and Heslington, and his new country house symbolised his social and material progress.
Of the original house, some parts remain, including the two staircase towers, the lower courses of the two wings, much of the courtyard face, and, in particular, the pendant stucco ceiling over the great hall, which has been compared with the similar ceiling at Gilling Castle, and may be the work of the same craftsman.
Eynns died in 1573 and, in 1601, the Hall and the estate were sold by his nephews to the Hesketh family. On the death of Thomas Hesketh III in 1708, the Hall passed by marriage into the ownership of the Yarburgh family, where it remained until 1852.
Little happened to the Hall, structurally, during the seventeenth century. Thomas Hesketh I built almshouses in the village, and the Hall did not suffer at all during the Civil War, even though Fairfax and his army approached York, for the siege of 1644, via Fulford and Heslington, and set up cannon on Windmill Hill to fire into the city. In the early eighteenth century, the gardens were laid out in formal style. A gazebo, with reflecting rectangular pond and canal, was built and the yew alleys, about 1720. In the great hall, Charles Yarburgh (owner, 1754-1789) added a series of heraldic panels, 57 in all, to commemorate all the Yarburgh marriages since the eleventh century. They were all eventually painted over to be rediscovered later, and a few still remain.
Socially, the Yarburghs achieved their most distinguished match during the early years of their ownership of the Hall when, in 1719, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Anne (Hesketh) and James Yarburgh, married Sir John Vanbrugh who, at the time, was involved in the design of Castle Howard. He does not appear, however, to have had any architectural influence on Heslington Hall. For the rest of the eighteenth century, the Yarburghs lived the lives typical of the country squierarchy, and the Hall "slumbered in prosperity, sending its patched and commoded daughters to dance country dances in the Long Room at Scarborough, or to walk minuets at the great county balls in the Assembly Rooms at York, until it should give them in marriage; and its sons to the militia, or on to the racecourse and to the cockpit". It was Henry Yarburgh (owner 1789-1825) who caught the eye of Revd. Sydney Smith, then living in Heslington pending the completion of his new vicarage at Foston. Heslington Hall, he wrote, was "a fine old house of the time of Queen Elizabeth, where resided the last of the squires, with his lady, who looked as though she had walked straight out of the Ark...He was a perfect specimen of the Trullibers of old; he smoked, hunted, drank beer at his door with his grooms and dogs, and spelt over the county paper on Sundays. At first, he heard I was a Jacobin and a dangerous fellow, and turned aside as I passed: but at length, when he found the peace of the village undisturbed...he first bowed, then called, and at last reached such a pitch of confidence that he used to bring the papers that I might explain the difficult words to him; actually discovered that I had made a joke, laughed till I thought he would have died of convulsions, and ended by inviting me to see his dogs". Henry's brother Nicholas (owner 1825-1852), the last of the line and still referred to locally as 'Major Yarburgh', achieved the family ambition by winning the St Leger in 1839 with his horse Charles XII.
On Nicholas' death, the Hall passed into the ownership of his nephew, Yarburgh Greame, the man who, although he already owned and had rebuilt Sewerby Hall, set about the rebuilding of Heslington Hall. With his architect (P. C. Hardwick who designed the Great Hall of Euston Station) he achieved the virtual destruction of the Elizabethan Hall that Eynns had built, and its replacement by a largely Victorian building. The forecourt face of the building was faithfully restored, a copy of the stone doorway with its two pairs of Corinthian columns replaced the original which was moved into the walled garden; the great hall behind the facade was largely preserved with its original stucco ceiling and Charles Yarburgh's heraldic panels. But the entire garden front, apart from the staircase towers, was rebuilt and enlarged and the two side wings (one of which had been the stable block) were rebuilt. The sober Elizabethan skyline was punctuated by flamboyant chimney stacks and the two staircase towers were capped with slated pyramid. Inside new panelling, new doors, new rooms and decorative ceilings (many with heraldic devices) replaced the original. The canted bay window of the great hall (dated 1855) received twenty-five stained glass shields displaying Yarburgh Graeme's personal 'quarterings'. A modest Elizabethan country house became a Victorian mansion of 109 rooms. Outside, the formal eighteenth-century garden was re-styled; the rectangular fish pond was grassed over, a new terrace created, and much of the available space taken up by an irregularly shaped lake with the inevitable boat-house and dove cote. New stables were built.
George John Lloyd inherited the Hall from his uncle in 1856 (and, incidentally, was the man responsible for the building of the village school and St Paul's church) and, in turn, his daughter inherited the property. Her husband, George William de Yarburgh-Bateson, also inherited from his brother the barony which brought to Heslington Hall, in 1890, its first Lord Deramore. Their two sons, Robert Wilfred (third baron Deramore) and George Nicholas (fourth baron Deramore) occupied the Hall during the twentieth century.
Architecturally, the Hall was slightly changed externally in 1876 when some of the most eccentric parts of the 1855 skyline were removed (notably the staircase towers reverted to their former flat roofs), and internally in 1903. Major changes, of course, were made prior to occupation by the University in 1962. The family had left the Hall at the outbreak of the Second World War, during which the Hall became the Headquarters of 64 Group, Bomber Command. After the war, the Hall stood empty for almost twenty years until, with Dr Bernard Fielden as architect, it was converted for use by the University. The two wings were gutted of their nineteenth-century warren of rooms to provide accommodation in the north wing for the library (subsequently to provide offices for the Registrar's department) and in the south wing for the University's first dining hall (with a new kitchen block to the rear). In the main hall, the fireplace and much of the panelling was removed, and a new staircase and gallery were built. But the link with the past is intact - Eynns' stucco ceiling, Charles Yarburgh's heraldic panels at the north end, Yarburgh Graeme's heraldic window and the linenfold doors, splendid examples of Victorian craftsmanship at its best. Other rooms, many with their nineteenth-century decorated ceilings and panelling, are little changed, especially the Lesser Hall (G09) and the Morning Room (G12) whilst, above the main entrance, the University's principal administrative building still carries the Yarburgh achievement with its motto 'Non est sine pulvere palma'.
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