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Whitworth Hall has its roots in Norman England and the earliest records refer to the holder of the estate being Thomas de Acle, who subsequently assumed the local name Whyte-worth in the early 14th Century.
In 1420, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, held the estate to make a park to hunt and take game. For three hundred years it was the home of the Shafto family, the most noted of whom was Robert Shafto, man of fashion and M.P. for County Durham. He died in 1797 but his name was made famous by the ballad:
Bobbie Shafto went to sea Silver Buckles on his knee He'll come back and marry me Bonny Bobbie Shafto.
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