Stanford Hall is a stately home in Leicestershire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, near the village of

Stanford on Avon Stanford-on-Avon is a village in the civil parish of Stanford in West Northamptonshire, England. It lies next to the River Avon, which here forms the county boundary between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. On the Leicestershire side of the ...

(which is in Northamptonshire) and the town of

Lutterworth Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. It is located north of Rugby ...

, 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

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 William and Mary often refers to: * The joint reign of William III of England (II of Scotland) and Mary II of England (and Scotland) * William and Mary style, a furniture design common from 1700 to 1725 named for the couple William and Mary may ...

house", the architect was William Smith of Warwick. Stanford Hall - 1

In 1792 Sarah, 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 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'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

pioneer Percy Pilcher built some of his early

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

s 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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

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

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

, London, were evacuated to the Hall. Their premises were so badly damaged that when war ended they had to relocate to

Woldingham School Woldingham School is an independent school for girls, located in the former Marden Park of outside the village of Woldingham, Surrey, in South East England. It is a Roman Catholic school and a member of the global Network of Sacred Heart Schoo ...

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 Three separate historic buildings councils were created by the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953, one for each of England, Scotland, and Wales. Each Historic Buildings Council advised the relevant government minister on the exercise ...

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 an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

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 A refectory table is a highly elongated table used originally for dining in monasteries during Medieval times. In the Late Middle Ages, the table gradually became a banqueting or feasting table in castles and other noble residences. The ori ...

and set of Charles II chairs. The grounds of the hall are used for concerts and

classic car A classic car is an older car, typically 25 years or older, though definitions vary.While other languages, such as German and Dutch, may refer to classic cars as "oldtimers", this usage is unknown in English, where "old-timer" refers to an elder ...

shows, including the

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the ...

Trabant Trabant () is a series of small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. In total, four different models were made, the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Tr ...

IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Ac ...

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

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

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 called Stanford Park due to the diversity of lichen 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'' (1 ...

, ''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