Kiplin Hall

This Yorkshire manor with its link to the early American settlers has a remarkable survival story of its own

- FELICITY DAY

Few houses in Britain can claim such a special relationship with our friends across the pond as Kiplin Hall. Arriving at this red-brick Jacobean beauty, tucked away in one of North Yorkshire’s quietest corners, you’d be forgiven for wondering why – but all is revealed as you step across the threshold and discover the plaque commemorating George Calvert, builder of the house in the 1620s and founder of the US state of Maryland.

400 years on, the bond between the east-coast state and the house that many Marylanders regard as its birthplace is as strong as ever – in fact, the descendents of the Calverts’ first settlers are partly the reason that Kiplin survives today.