Carr Manor - Later History

Later History

Albutt, a vicar’s son from Suffolk, invented the short clinical thermometer and ophthalmoscope and published his influential eight-volume System of Medicine between 1896 and 1899. He was also supposedly the model of Tertius Lydgate M.D. in George Elliot's Middlemarch. Albutt was typical of Prior’s future clients: successful professional middle class men, solicitors, barristers, doctors etc.

In 1903 the Leeds firm of Bedford and Kiston were engaged to make major alterations to the house, doubling its size through the addition of a northern range and adding two stories to Prior’s service wing, creating an E-shaped plan. They added two west bays to the garden front and altered the terrace. Their work carefully imitated that of Prior externally, but the interiors have been extensively altered with the repositioning of the entrance, hall and main staircase and the classicisation of the dining room.