Stanford Hall is a

stately home 300px, Oxfordshire.html" ;"title="Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire">Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a To ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, England, near the village of Stanford on Avon (which is in Northamptonshire) and the town of

Lutterworth Lutterworth is an historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwicks ...

, Leicestershire. The population of any residents in the area is included in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Misterton with Walcote.

History

Ancestral home of the Cave family from c. 1430, the hall was built in the 1690s for Sir Roger Cave, 2nd Baronet. Described by Simon Jenkins as the "perfect William and Mary house", the architect was William Smith of Warwick. Stanford Hall - 1

In 1792

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woma ...

, daughter of Sir Thomas Cave Bt, inherited the Cave estate on the death of her nephew Sir Thomas Cave, 7th Baronet. She had married Henry Otway in 1790 and was created Baroness Braye in 1839. Her descendants remain in residence. (Henry Otway was

High Sheriff of Leicestershire This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Leicestershire, United Kingdom. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most ...

in 1804). The River Avon flows through the grounds, with a weir downstream, so a small lake is formed. The

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

pioneer Percy Pilcher built some of his early gliders here in the 1890s; he also built a powered flying machine here that many historians believe was capable of flight, but he was killed nearby in an accident in 1899 before he could try it. An exact replica of Pilcher's "The Hawk" glider is exhibited at the hall. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the nuns and pupils from the Sacred Heart Convent and School in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

, London, were evacuated to the Hall. Their premises were so badly damaged that when war ended they had to relocate to Woldingham School near London. From 1947 until 1949 it was the country branch of St. Mary's Town and Country School. By that time the roof was uncared for and in serious need of repair, but the Historic Buildings Council recommended a large grant for restoration and the hall was opened to the public in 1958.

Attractions

Today the hall is a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beaut ...

open to the public on limited days in the year. Among the attractions are guided tours of the hall and its grounds, a forge, a beautiful rose garden, a shop and tea rooms. The house has a significant collection of antique furnishings; for example, the hall has one room with original 17th-century furnishings including a refectory table and set of Charles II chairs. The grounds of the hall are used for concerts and

classic car A classic car is typically described as an automobile 25 years or older, although a car's age is not the only requirement it must meet before being considered a "classic." However, a standard criteria for recognizing cars as classics does not ex ...

shows, including the Wartburg/

Trabant Trabant () is a series of B-segment, small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East Germany, East German car manufacturer HQM Sachsenring GmbH, VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four models were made: the Trabant P 50, Trabant 50 ...

/ IFA Club Rally and since 1983 has hosted the annual National Mini Day for owners of

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

cars. The grounds hosted the first Stanford Hall Half Marathon and 10k running race in March 2014. Since 2003 Stanford Hall has been host to Firework Champions – the UK's leading firework competition. Some of the parkland is designated a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

called Stanford Park due to the diversity of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

species on the trees.Natural England SSSI notification
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Line notes

External links

Stanford Hall's official website
*

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, ''The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland'', 1960 edition. {{coord, 52, 24, 31, N, 1, 08, 19, W, region:GB_scale:20000, display=title Country houses in Leicestershire Grade I listed buildings in Leicestershire Historic house museums in Leicestershire