Christopher Turnor (MP)
Christopher Turnor MP, JP, DL, was an English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1841 to 1847, and a promoter of Lincolnshire architecture.
Christopher Turnor was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, a justice of the peace for parts of Kesteven and Lindsey in Lincolnshire, and High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1834. Turnor was elected as a Member of Parliament for South Lincolnshire in April 1841, and served until the 1847 general election. He was a member of the Carlton Club.
Christopher Turnor's great grandfather was Edmund Turnor, of Stoke Rochford in Kesteven, and Panton in East Lindsey, Lincolnshire. His father was Edmund Turnor, FRS, FSA, MP for Midhurst, antiquarian, and the author of Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham Containing Authentic Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton.
Turnor married on 2 February 1837 Lady Caroline Finch-Hatton, daughter of George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea. The Finch-Hatton family owned lands in Hertfordshire and parts of Hatton Garden in London. Turnor's son was Edmund Turnor, Member of Parliament for Grantham in 1868, and for South Lincolnshire from 1868 to 1880. A second son was Christopher Hatton Turnor, whose son was Christopher Hatton Turnor, author and architect, of Stoke Rochford, who married on 7 August 1907 Sarah Marie Talbot, daughter and heir of Admiral The Hon. Walter Cecil Carpenter, formerly Talbot.Architecture
Christopher Turnor's property and seat was the now Grade I listed Stoke Rochford Hall, today a hotel and conference centre. In 1839 architect William Burn was commissioned by Turnor to rebuild the previous 1794 Hall in Jacobean style, while the estate was emparked, extended and redesigned which required the removal of the village of North Stoke, its ecclesiastical parish being conjoined to South Stoke. The associated of the Stoke Rochford Estate, at the time the third largest in Lincolnshire, is still owned by the Turnor family. Turnor rebuilt and added houses and designed farm building complexes throughout Lincolnshire to a unified and coherent design using local materials. He provided for building design not just in Lincolnshire, or in Stoke Rochford which he turned into an estate village. His particular church and farmhouse additions and alterations were at Great Ponton, Panton, Lissington, Langworth, East Torrington, East Barkwith, Wragby, Binbrook and Kirmond le Mire. Turnor also promoted Lincolnshire county railways. While in London the Turnor's family home was 34 Chesham Place, Belgravia.
Christopher Turnor designed his and his wife's memorial for the north chancel chapel in St Andrew and St Mary's Church, Stoke Rochford.
