Welcome to Staunton Harold Hall
The Staunton Harold Estate is a traditional country estate of some 2000 acres, centred on the great Georgian mansion, Staunton Harold Hall. Family run, and ‘hands on’ in its management style, the estate has embraced modern uses for its diverse assets.
The Hall itself became a family home again in 2003, after fifty years of institutional use. With some eighty three rooms, the main building easily accommodates three generations of our family. Son-in-law, Tony Cantrill, has taken over the West Wing, now converted into high quality managed offices and conference facilities, known as LION COURT.
The suite of fine ‘State Rooms’ on the east and north front lend themselves to large functions, and here we host weddings and other events up to twelve times a year.
Our family’s involvement with Staunton Harold began in 1955, when we purchased the three farms at the core of the estate. These included the large Georgian stable block, which stood abandoned and ruinous. We put it in good repair, and in 1974 began its conversion to craft workshops and studios. Now known as the FERRERS CENTRE FOR ARTS AND CRAFTS this is a true ‘making’ centre with some eighteen businesses covering a range of disciplines. Most of our land is let to local farmers, but the four hundred acres of woodland we manage ourselves with a forestry team based at our estate sawmill. From here we sell firewood through the TEN MILE TIMBER COMPANY, and sawn material, mainly oak and larch, through Staunton Hardwoods, cut to customers’ requirements.
Our family business centres around maintaining and renting out property and a recent addition to this, built from our own timber, is DEERPARK LODGE. This is a holiday cottage, sleeping six, set among trees on a hill above the Hall. The hamlet of Staunton Harold includes a garden centre, in separate ownership, and a fine 17th century church, now in the care of the National Trust. We have become something of a walking and cycling centre, with adequate car parks and restaurants and seven routes radiating from the settlement.
Staunton Harold – July Bulletin
Three months on, and we’d like our lives back please Boris. If this ‘social distancing’ M’larkey is reduced to one metre that will make a huge difference, though some people, scared witless by all the doomsters, will still be isolating themselves a year from now.
Alone among local open spaces, we decided not to close the estate to visitors. We saw more people walking the footpaths and picnicking on the lawns by the lake, but never too many. They appreciate the beauty of Staunton, and we appreciate that they left no litter. Several have contacted us to say how much they valued having somewhere to go.
The workshops and studios at the FERRERS CENTRE have been closed, apart from Staunton Deli. As I write they have all reopened, plus the toilets, and the tearooms are set to join them on 4th July. The long break has had an upside; renewed energy and fresh initiatives are much in evidence. The threat of unemployment which hangs over other sectors has not touched us here; in fact the estate has just taken on another apprentice.
With so many shows cancelled this year we are planning to put on one of our own. The STAUNTON WOOD SHOW will be a modest affair in a paddock on the edge of the hamlet. It will feature about half a dozen local businesses connected with wood. The proposed dates are Saturday and Sunday, 5th and 6th September. These dates are my choosing; back in the fifties and sixties the Cheshire Home here at Staunton held its annual fete on the first Saturday in September, and for the first twelve years it never rained. Okay, it did rain on the thirteenth, and my brother and I had to cancel the fireworks because they’d all gone home. But, on the balance of probability………
