page_title: Flitwick Manor
section_title: The Brooks family
hierarchical_section_title: Flitwick Manor / The Brooks family
caption_attribution_description: English: Croquet on the lawns of Flitwick Manor 1870
context_page_description: Flitwick Manor is a Grade II* Listed Georgian country house in the south of Flitwick, Bedfordshire, England. It is located on Church Road off the A5120 road. It is currently run as a hotel by the hotelier firm Topland, trading as Hallmark Hotels.
context_section_description: George Brooks was a barrister and banker in London. After he married Anne he continued to live there and rented Flitwick Manor. Robert Trevor was a very significant tenant as it was he who instigated the significant changes to the Manor between 1793 and 1808. He agreed with George Brooks to pay half of the costs. In 1816 George's son John Thomas Brooks (1794–1858) was given Flitwick Manor on his marriage to Mary Hatfield. This couple lived there for the rest of their lives.
  John Thomas Brooks wrote several diaries which give a picture of life at Flitwick Manor. The most important event in these diaries seems to be the death of his only daughter, Mary Ann Brooks (1822–1848), who died aged 26, in 1848. He was particularly fond of his garden and made major improvements to the grounds. When he died in 1858, his eldest son John Hatfield Brooks (1824–1907) inherited the Manor. 
  Major John Hatfield Brooks was educated in Rugby, Warwickshire and later became an officer in the 1st Bengal Light Cavalry. He served over in British India. It was in Calcutta that he married Sophia Margaret Cloete in 1850. The couple had two daughters. When John died in 1907, his eldest daughter Catherine Mary Frances Brooks (1853–1934) inherited the house.
  Catherine did not marry and lived in the house until she died at the age of 81 in 1934. Her obituary outlined her work in the village of Flitwick and praised her generosity. When she died she had no heirs so she left the property to her cousin Robert Adolphus Lyall (1876–1948). When he died in 1948 it was left to John Comyn Lyall. He advertised it for sale in 1953.
caption: Playing croquet at Flitwick Manor in about 1870
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