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# Staunton Harold Hall

Staunton Harold Hall and Estate are set in the beautiful countryside of Leicestershire. Available for weddings, events and with parkland open to the public

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## Posts

- [Staunton Notebook - December Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-december-bulletin/) - Shottle farmers - proud as peacocks, Turnditch farmers - poor as crows, Idridgehay we dursna’ speak of, How they live, God only knows. Old Derbyshire Rhyme Farming has always been a precarious business, more so since cargo ships and refrigeration opened us up to cheap imports from the New World. Market prices, the weather, pests
- [Staunton Notebook - January 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-january-2021/) - I think it’s called the ‘precautionary principle’, the dictum that, if anything could conceivably result in loss or injury, steps are taken to avoid it. Taken to its ‘logical’ conclusion, I’m not sure that we should get out of bed in the morning. Here at Staunton we are currently seeing two examples of it. A
- [Staunton Notebook - February 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-february-2021/) - I have a new pen pal, Emiliya Christie, and it came about like this. I was feeding the peacocks on the Yew Walk about a month ago when a family stopped to watch. We chatted, and they said they came often when they were in England. So, next question - where do you live? Moscow.
- [Staunton Notebook - March 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-march-2021/) - "Ye must aye be sticking in a tree, 'twill be growing whilst thee be sleeping" This the laird to his son in one of Sir Walter Scott’s novels. I may have mis-remembered it, and the laird was slightly in error; trees don’t grow at night. Well, I have been ‘sticking in a tree’ for nearly
- [Staunton Notebook - April 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-april-2021/) - How does a prisoner feel as his release date approaches? Excited, and maybe a little apprehensive at the change from certainty to uncertainty. I find myself slightly affected that way by the coming release from ‘lockdown.’ There are changes afoot, and we have yet to see how they play out. At a meeting of our
- [Staunton Notebook - May 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-may-2021/) - Last Christmas Jacqueline had a present of a book by Monty Don, the gardening guru. Leafing through it I came across a paragraph on hedgehogs. Monty says that the reason they are in decline is ‘loss of habitat,’ a phrase I’ve heard elsewhere. I find this strange; hedgehogs have completely disappeared from Staunton, yet our
- [Staunton Notebook - June 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-june-2021/) - It is more than three hundred years since the first earl began to make Staunton Hall into a stately home In that time the Ferrers family and others must have hosted hundreds of grand celebrations here, including a fair sprinkling of masked balls. Surely never, until last week, a masked wedding. Limited to thirty people,
- [Staunton Notebook - July 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-july-2021/) - “Few heed the warning of a distant drum.” I’d been hearing for several years about a disease in Wales which was killing the larch trees. But Wales is a long way off and anyway theirs were ‘Jap’ larch, while ours are mainly European. We should be OK. Not any longer. I learn that each spring
- [Staunton Notebook - August 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-august-2021/) - “We love the peace and quiet” is a comment we are hearing from visitors to our Brewhouse Flat in the building behind the hall. Holiday accommodation is a new business for us, and this week we are welcoming our tenth pair of guests. When you ‘live over the shop’ it’s interesting to learn how your
- [Staunton Notebook - September 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-september-2021/) - In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Shakespeare writes a play within a play. A motley crew of Athenian working men assemble to rehearse a play to be performed before the Duke of Athens on his wedding day. The play calls for one man to carry a sword, and they decide to include a prologue saying that
- [Staunton Notebook - October 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-october-2021/) - ‘’Desire lines,’ - never heard of them? Nor had I until we were planning the route of the Staunton Ridgeway nearly thirty years ago. Jacqueline and I lived at Melbourne then, and wanted to make a footpath which would connect to Staunton Harold. We had the farm tenants and shooting syndicate on board, but we
- [Staunton Notebook - November 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-november-2021/) - Back in 1954 the Twelfth Earl Ferrers put the whole Staunton Estate up for sale, saying to his son “I’m not going to leave you with this great White Elephant I’ve been lumbered with all these years.” He was a sick man, and practically bankrupt. At the auction a number of lots failed to reach
- [Staunton Notebook - December 2021](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-december-2021/) - I am not a ‘Climate Change Denier’, certainly not. But I am a ‘Climate Change Solution Sceptic’, at least at local level. Take hedgerows, The government has declared its ambition to plant thousands of miles more of them, but have they checked this out with farmers and landowners? Machinery gets bigger; on our arable land
- [Staunton Notebook - January 2022](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-january-2022/) - NO MASK, NO SERVICE,’ said the notice outside the small industrial unit near Coalville to which Jacqueline and I had been directed. So we complied and went inside, only to find just one other person with a mask. People are getting fed up with being told that Covid is the only game in town. It’s
- [Staunton Notebook - February 2022](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-february-2022/) - On the second of February the Quorn Hunt met at the front of the hall, a venue they’ve used over many years, probably centuries. About twenty mounted riders and maybe thirty followers were treated to port and sausage rolls. One of the hounds managed to sneak inside and snaffle a few of the rolls. The
- [Staunton Notebook - March 2022](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-march-2022/) - Who remembers COVID 19? Strange how cataclysmic events can crowd out others which, only weeks ago, seemed to be all-embracing. Now the plight of the Ukrainians fills the media and our thoughts. The problems which this crisis has thrown up stretch much wider. Our young Russian friend in Moscow wrote yesterday, desperately worried about
- [Staunton Notebook - April 2022](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-april-2022/) - Visitors leaving Staunton by the Heathend drive may notice, before reaching the public highway, that they pass over a narrow stream. This stream marks the boundary between the counties of Leicestershire and Derbyshire. Insignificant as it is now, in Roman times this was a wide and navigable river, used to carry lead ore and other
- [Staunton Notebook - May 2022](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-may-2022/) - Twelve vintage Rolls Royces lined up in front of the hall; that will be something to see tomorrow. They have been trying to visit us for two years, as part of a three day tour of the area. Their passengers are Georgian architecture enthusiasts, so right up my street. Some are architects or historians, and
- [Snippets of Local History - March 2023](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/snippets-of-local-history-march-2023/) - Yes, that's me, in about 1980, fixing a gilded finial atop the cupola above the Ferrers Centre Coffee Shop. The finial was turned in pitch pine by our furniture maker, Dick Bass, who also lent me the drill to make a hole for the dowel. Maybe it wasn't strong enough; thirty years later it blew
- [Bulletin 133 - May 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-133-may-2017/) - The day we bought Staunton Harold Hall in April 2003, we turned off all the heating. Lady Ryder had installed electric night store heaters, two hundred of them, and they were costing a quarter of a million pounds each year to run. New ways of heating this large house have developed piecemeal, as needs and
- [Staunton Notebook - October Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-october-bulletin/) - Here at Staunton our close neighbours are the National Trust, owners of Calke Abbey and park. Recently they have come under fire on two counts, closing down their parkland when the virus struck, and re-examining their properties with regard to colonialism and slavery. On the second count I think that they are well out of
- [Staunton Notebook - November Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-november-bulletin/) - They are crunching under my feet almost everywhere I walk, millions of acorns, more than I can ever recall. Is this a consequence of our changing climate? But it’s only the oaks as far as I can tell; the beech nuts are still the shrivelled triangles I find in most years and the sweet chestnuts
- [Staunton Harold - September Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-september-bulletin/) - On my early bike ride this morning three deer tittuped daintily across the drive, from the direction of New Plantation. Lady, trotting beside me, held to her principle of not chasing anything bigger than herself. A pretty sight, but that wood is supposed to be deer-fenced. Later Ken told me that a branch has fallen
- [Staunton Harold - August Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-august-bulletin/) - What a world of scaredy cats we have become. And we, the English, who once had a reputation for independent thought and ‘bloodymindedness’ are as much caught up in it as any other nation. We have sacrificed the quality of our lives for quantity, and no one can see the end of it. We have
- [Staunton Harold - July Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/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
- [Staunton Harold - June Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-june-bulletin/) - Some recent conversations have set me thinking about the farms around Staunton, how they’ve changed in my lifetime and are set to change again. When the twelfth Earl Ferrers put the estate up for auction in 1954 it included eight tenanted farms. The biggest had 266 acres, the smallest, Lount Farm, 39 acres. This small
- [Staunton Harold - May Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-may-bulletin/) - Have we ever seen a more glorious spring? I don’t recall one, and that not because we have more leisure to enjoy it. The miserably wet winter has resulted in a profusion of wild flowers, blooming earlier and more abundantly than ever. Now, paradoxically, the warm sunny days make us look for rain to sustain
- [Staunton Harold - April Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-april-bulletin/) - ‘May you live in interesting times’, a Chinese saying for a Chinese virus. A strange time indeed. Staunton has been almost as quiet as when I first walked through the grounds exactly seventy years ago. We have not closed the car park or foothpaths, and in the last few days I’ve seen a small but
- [Staunton Harold - Covid-19 & March Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-bulletin-march-2020/) - Very strange times. As a boy I spent many nights in our damp cold cellar, sheltering from German bombers; now I’m confined to the kitchen, but at least it’s warm. Here at Staunton we are adjusting to the new reality. The Nurseries are fully open while at the Ferrers Centre the workshops are mainly open
- [Bulletin 94 - 23rd March 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-94-23rd-march-2014/) - Win some, lose some Another fine sunny day; Jacqueline and I set out to plant a tree in the arboretum. It is a specimen fir tree, with striking silver grey needles, added as an afterthought when we collected forest trees from the nursery. We chose an open space among the soaring wellingtonias, weeping ash and
- [Staunton Notebook - May 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-may-2018/) - Rachel, who manages our sawmill, found a hedgehog curled up under some logs last week. Rowan, our secretary, remembers seeing one cross the road last year. Andrew remembers his dog disturbing one at the farm. So there are some still about, but most of our gang here at the hall cannot recall the last time
- [Staunton Harold Bulletin - February 2020](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-bulletin-february-2020/) - Some of the coal seams which give Coalville its name come to surface on our estate. They have been mined continually since medieval times; the last pit, New Lount, was sunk in 1927. All the deep mines had closed by about 1980, but they kept on pumping the mine water out for another ten years.
- [Staunton Harold Bulletin - Jan 2020](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-bulletin-jan-2020/) - ‘Parkinson’s Laws’ - does anybody remember them? One was, ’Work expands according to the amount of time available for its completion’. Well, I’ll add another: ‘The bigger the company, the harder it is to contact them’. Take the Forestry Commission, now called Forest England, I think. Almost three months ago we set off down the
- [Staunton Harold Bulletin - December 2019](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-bulletin-december-2019/) - In a few days time, with any luck, we will have elected a Conservative government, quickly followed by a vote to leave the EU.The settling of this issue will probably give a psychological boost in the country, but real change will still be a good way off. Thus a matter that has consumed us for
- [Staunton Harold Bulletin - November 2019](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-bulletin-november-2019/) - Recollections of Staunton Harold, some good some not so good. We quite often hear from people whose relatives were cared for here in the Sue Ryder hospice days,from about 1980 to 2002. Before that from people who worked here in the Cheshire Home days, 1955 to 1978. It is mostly only elderly locals like
- [Staunton Harold Bulletin - October 2019](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-bulletin-october-2019/) - Smile at us, pay us, pass us, but do not quite forget, For we are the people of England, who never have spoken yet. G K Chesterton. The Secret people. Except that three years ago you did ask us to speak, and, Oh! how you hate what we said.I think it’s true to say that
- [Staunton Harold - September 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-september-2019-bulletin/) - Sunshine and rain; this has been an exceptional year for tree growth. Some of the young oaks behind the Deersheds on the Staunton Ridgeway are more than eight feet high. They were planted as two foot whips in December 2016, with help from all of our sixteen grandchildren. The Dubai contingent spent Christmas with us
- [Staunton Harold - July 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-july-2019-bulletin/) - There are compensations for having to give up driving. As a passenger at this time of year i scan the hedgerows looking for the telltale signs of dead twigs on the ash trees. There are some round here, but the majority are still healthy. There are ash trees in nearly all the woods at Staunton.
- [Staunton Harold - June 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-june-2019-bulletin/) - BREXIT! - don’t you just love it. A term that didn’t exist three years ago and a party two months old has split our country down the middle. It’s the English Civil War without the bloodshed. These day strangers will strike up a conversation about politics, though it’s often to damn all politicians. Now we
- [Staunton Harold - May 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-may-2019-bulletin/) - My mind is changed; from being ambivalent as to the case for the HS2 railway I have come to believe that it should be abandoned. Not that my opinion carries any weight, though it is due to pass through more than a mile of our land. It is hard for a layman to have an
- [Staunton Harold - April 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-april-2019-bulletin/) - A man of eighty, planting! To sow at such an age might be no harm, Argued three youngsters from a neighbouring farm, But to plant trees! Th’old man was plainly wanting. ‘For what, in Heavens name,’ said one of them ‘Can possibly reward your pains, Unless you live to be Methusalem? Why tax what little
- [Staunton Harold - February 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-february-2019-bulletin/) - The pine tree by the churchyard wall has leaned as long as I can remember. Opening the shutters after a stormy night we always checked to see that it was still there. Its nearest neighbour was a Wellingtonia, planted as a memorial tree when the hall was a hospice thirty years ago. If the pine
- [Staunton Harold - January 2019 Bulletin](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-harold-january-2019-bulletin/) - Shortly after I was first married, my wife and i invited her old school friend Marcia to stay for a weekend, with her husband and small son. The lad was at the crawling stage, and his toys were spread all over the floor. When he’d gone to bed we began tidying up, but the husband
- [Staunton Notebook - December 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-december-2018/) - We bought the last of the farms and woodland on the Coleorton Estate from Sir George Beamont in 1966. It had been his family seat for five hundred years, though they’d sold the hall and moved away forty years earlier. The land adjoined our Staunton Harold property, only separated by the A453 Nottingham - Birmingham
- [Staunton Notebook - October 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-october-2018-2/) - We four country bumpkins from Staunton would make very unhappy jailbirds; after five hours in the National Exhibition Centre at Birmingham there was palpable relief as we emerged into the open air once more. We went there last week to explore the ‘Grand Designs’ exhibition, looking for new ideas in the care and improvement of
- [Staunton Notebook - September 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-october-2018/) - The FERRERS CENTRE -Time for a Revamp Forty four years, - that’s how long it is since we started to convert the derelict stables at Staunton Harold into workshops and studios. There has been the odd blip along the way, but overall usage has increased steadily and for many years now all the available space
- [Staunton Notebook - August 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-august-2018/) - Shortly after we moved in to Staunton Hall in 2003 we were appoached by Nottingham University for permission to bring a coach load of their architecture students for a ‘field day’ in the grounds. They had been doing this when the hall was a hospice. Naturally I said yes, and went out to meet them
- [Staunton Notebook - July 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-july-2018-2/) - ‘’May you live in interesting times’ is the Chinese benefaction, and ’Boy’ - we certainly do. Football in Moscow, Tennis at Wimbledon, Lads rescued from a cave in Thailand, Novichok in Salisbury, Donald Trump in Europe. Oh! - and then there’s Brexit. I think most of us are fed up with it. Bad enough that
- [Staunton Notebook - July 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-july-2018/) - Last Sunday was a day of two halves. By eight o’clock in the morning the lawns were heaving with people, hundreds of them, throwing themselves into the lake, scrambling out and tearing off the wetsuits, peddling furiously off to Ticknall and Melbourne, and finally running past the front of the hall out into the woodlands
- [Staunton Notebook - April 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-april-2018/) - Sitting in a Cornish cafe last month looking out to sea, a man came into view picking up litter. With deft movements of his litter stick he conveyed each piece of litter into a bag held open in front of him. He was not unencumbered, a big pack on his back, and large dog in
- [Staunton Notebook - March 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-march-2018/) - Call for the Experts Uncle Fred was a gruff Yorkshireman, with a healthy dislike for ’experts’. He used to say ‘X is an unknown factor, and ‘spurt’ is a drip under pressure’. A skilled welder, he worked mainly in the shipyards, during and after the Second World War. My own career doesn’t go back quite
- [Staunton Notebook- February 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-february-2018/) - ROAD REPAIRS There are approximately three miles of drives leading into Staunton Harold, and all but a short section fall to be maintained by the Staunton Estate. The two main drives by which traffic comes to us are known as the Coach Road and the Heathend Drive. Fifty years ago these were just gravel drives
- [Staunton Notebook - January 2018](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-january-2018/) - Then and Now Many of the matters which concern us today are the problems of affluence; - obesity, road congestion, plastic disposal. How different to how things were when I was growing up, at the end of the Second World War. There were no plastics, of the sort we have nowadays Fish and chips were
- [Staunton Notebook - December 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-december-2017/) - The Naming of Parts If you had met Leonard Cheshire, as I did a couple of times, you wouldn’t suspect his extraordinary achievements. Quiet and unassuming, he led by example. Awarded a VC for his work as a bomber pilot at the end of the war against Germany, he was a passenger on the US
- [Staunton Notebook - November 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-november-2017/) - We were on Loughborough station last week when the through train to London roared past. It always strikes me as ill-mannered, like a drunken lout barging through a bus queue. Those Edwardian glass canopies over our heads speak on a gentler time. The week before Jacqueline and I had been the guilty parties, zigzagging across
- [Staunton Notebook - Sept 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-sept-2017/) - Sometime back in the 1960s the government dreamt up a scheme to pay farmers to plant trees on their land. Thousands of trees, mainly conifers, were planted and then forgotten. Twenty five years on they survived as spindly poles with a tuft of green on top, useless to man or beast. As a woodsman I
- [Staunton Notebook - August 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/staunton-notebook-august-2017/) - The Paths Not Taken Before his nervous breakdown Geoff Herbert was running a successful detective agency in Derby. The doctors advised a less stressful occupation, so he sold his business and apprenticed himself to a potter in Brailsford, a few miles north of Derby. Nearing the end of his apprenticeship he set out to look
- [Bulletin 135 - July 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-135-july-2017/) - The End of the Line Fourteen years, and one hundred and thirty five articles later, this will be my last bulletin. I feel that in this form they have run their course. It all started with postings before we moved into the Hall, to explain why, after years of hospice use and unlimited access, we
- [Bulletin 134 - June 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-134-june-2017/) - Stranger Danger ……And like some boys who, unaware, Ranging the woods to start a hare, Come to the mouth of the dark lair Where, growling low, a fierce old bear Lies amongst bones and blood.
- [Bulletin 132 - 1st April 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-132-1st-april-2017/) - Many readers will know of this estate’s forestry interests, in which connection I have been a long-standing member of the British Forestry Society. Some months ago I joined an expedition to Albania to study work they are doing there to re-establish the elm trees. Elm is Albania’s national tree, and important commercially for the products
- [Bulletin 131 - March 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-131-march-2017/) - Sunday 11th June 2017 - a date for your diary. On this day Staunton Harold will be hosting a major triathlon and showcasing itself to the world. Our Ferrers Centre craftspeople, the Garden Centre and the church will all be open, plus extra catering facilities and other activities. The event is being organised by HUUB,
- [Bulletin 130 - February 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-130-february-2017/) - Squirrel Wars For more than forty years the grey squirrel has been woodland owners’ number one enemy. I have known foresters who have been driven to distraction over the pest. On a tour of Forestry Commission woods in the north of England we were treated to Squirrel Pie, shot by the rangers and made from
- [Bulletin 129 - January 2017](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-129-january-2017/) - The Staunton Harold Estate is made up of the remnants of two ancient estates, with other pieces added at various times. My parents bought Staunton Harold in 1955, and then the former Coleorton Estate in 1966. They adjoin each other and were only separated by the A453 Nottingham to Birmingham Road. Staunton has seen few
- [Bulletin 128 - December 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-128-december-2016/) - LOCAL KNOWLEDGE Our longstanding vicar, the Reverend John Dawson, retired earlier this year. He had the care of four parishes, Breedon on the Hill, Worthington, Isley Walton and Staunton Harold. In recent years he has overseen changes at Breedon and Worthington, with the introduction of kitchens and toilet facilities. His replacement, the Reverend Mary Gregory,
- [Bulletin 127 - November 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-127-november-2016/) - OAKS SIXTEEN Great trees from little acorns grow. In this case a whole wood. Three years ago some of the grandchildren planted acorns in pots, which have grown into sizeable saplings. Thinking about where to put them, and the number of children who might like to be involved, I decided to plant a small wood.
- [Bulletin 125 - September 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-125-september-2016/) - Keeping Up Appearances It’s been the year of painting the doors and windows at the Ferrers Centre, all one hundred and eighteen of them. Mark has been on them all summer, and should finish before the weather breaks. Most have been replaced at some time during our sixty years of ownership, but the main doors
- [Bulletin 124 - August 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-124-august-2016/) - ‘Will Mr and Mrs Wilkins, currently believed to be touring in Scotland, please contact their daughter Charlotte in Bristol on a matter of urgency.” This is the sort of message you would sometimes hear, tagged on the one o’clock BBC News, fifty or more years ago. If they heard the message the Wilkins would
- [Bulletin 123 - July 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-123-july-2016/) - Brexit Can it be true? The case I have championed for more than twenty years has finally triumphed. In the lead-up to the vote, it was the topic of very conversation, and nearly everyone I spoke to was for ‘out’, but still I couldn’t believe that the country as a whole would ignore the warnings
- [Bulletin 122 - June 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-122-june-2016/) - Strictly for Birds Not being a man who takes much notice of such things, I cannot say if house martins have always nested in our buildings at Staunton. Certainly we were always aware of them in the stable courtyard, now the Ferrers Centre, and in the Hall since we moved to live here. It is
- [Bulletin 121- May 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-121-may-2016/) - Belief in the European Union is a perfectly valid position. It is valid for a German with memories of the last war, or a Bosnian with experience of more recent wars and massacres. It is valid for the people of Eastern Europe, offering them stability and the chance of a better life. For hundreds of millions of people
- [Bulletin 120 - April 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-120-april-2016/) - This Farming Life The Home Farm at Staunton Harold is long gone, the buildings converted to houses and sold off. Thanks mainly to the enthusiasm and commitment of son-in-law Andrew a farming business has again been established over the last ten years. As I write eight of our fourteen cows have calved, with all but
- [Bulletin 119 - March 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-119-march-2016/) - The Landscaping of our Valley Two men were mainly responsible for Staunton Harold as it looks today. The first Earl Ferrers began converting his Jacobean house into a Palladian mansion, and laid out the gardens around it in the geometric pattern of terraces and parterres as we see it on the Kyp engraving of about
- [Bulletin 118 - February 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-118-february-2016/) - The weekend before last John and drove down to Bournemouth on a special mission. The mission: to meet Win Kail (nee Bugg), an amazing old lady who celebrated her 100th birthday last December. In 1932 Win arrived at Staunton Harold Hall by laundry van (the family having gone ahead) late one evening along with the
- [Bulletin 117 - February 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-117-february-2016/) - Restoring Time We are shortly going to replace the stable clock over what is now the Ferrers Centre for Arts and Crafts. The original clock was installed in 1779 in the newly built stables of the fifth Earl Ferrers. The maker was John Whitehurst of Derby, a famous engineer and friend of the Earl. Italian
- [Bulletin 116 - January 2016](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-116-january-2016/) - Life Cycles Back in 1955, when my father bought the three farms at the heart of the Staunton Harold Estate, he also acquired two of the drives leading into it. Five years later, when I was first married and living at the thatched cottage on the Coach Road, I planted a few trees, including sycamores
- [Bulletin 115 - December 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-115-december-2015/) - The Law of Unintended Consequences I hope readers of this bulletin will forgive me if, for once, I forsake the affairs of Staunton and climb onto the world stage. As I write, parliament will shortly be debating whether to send the RAF to join the half dozen countries currently bombing Syria. I was victim of
- [Bulletin 114 - November 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-114-november-2015/) - Theft and Vandalism How far should we go in securing our property? Time was when every farmyard had a yapping dog on chain and the back door was unlocked all day. Our busy farmyard at Castle Farm had no dog, but the kitchen door welcomed all comers. When we moved to Staunton Harold Hall we
- [Bulletin 113 - November 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-113-november-2015/) - It’s happened again - we go to visit some stately home or garden - it costs me a few pounds to get in and hundreds to get out. This time it was the ‘Lost Gardens of Heligan’ down in Cornwall which we’ve been visiting since they were first rediscovered. Now that they have been fully
- [Bulletin 112 - October 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-112-october-2015/) - Beating the Bounds, and the ‘Bounders’ Bureaucracy is the bane of our age. Ringing a public utility company calls for stamina and determination, a long trawl though departments and reference numbers. Council offices and government departures likewise. So when these elements are on your side and the obstacles are your own friends and neighbours
- [Bulletin 111 - September 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-111-september-2015/) - Vintage Market - Sunday 6th September 2015 On this day the staff cars will be banished from their usual parking spot behind the Ferrers Centre, and their place taken by stalls selling vintage and handmade goods. This is a new departure for our centre, but if successful, could well be repeated. The Ferrers Centre is
- [Bulletin 110 - August 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-110-august-2015/) - Living with our Mistakes When we bought into the Estate in 1955 there was still a home farm, which had provided milk and meat to the family when Earl Ferrers lived at the Hall. Bob Bignall, the farmer, and his son David lived in the two houses at the top of the walled avenue, still
- [Bulletin 109 - July 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-109-july-2015/) - The Choices We Make This Estate only contains a handful of rural houses and cottages, and we rarely have one vacant. In the next few months a pretty two bed cottage will be coming empty, and we have been debating how best to relet it. There is a trend to turn such properties into holiday
- [Bulletin 107 - May 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-107-may-2015/) - An Accidental Craft Centre In 1955 my parents bought the former stable block of Staunton Harold Hall, semi derelict and 'thrown in' with the Home Farm. We repaired the roof and then tried for nearly twenty years to find a use for the building. We had plans prepared to turn it into fourteen houses turned
- [Bulletin 105 - March 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-105-march-2015-2/) - In 1974 a potter was my first tenant in the vast building known as the Ferrers Centre which had stood empty since before the Second World War. A great many artists and craftspeople have worked here since then. Over time we have brought all the rooms into use, and currently there are nineteen businesses based
- [Bulletin 106 - April 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-106-23rd-march-2015/) - I have had a minor involvement with film makers going back more than fifty years. When 'Women in Love' was being shot at nearby Elvaston Castle they needed some linked sausages for a market scene, and our butchery business supplied them. A few years later, when the same company was filming another D H Lawrence
- [Bulletin 104 - February 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-104-february-2015/) - Hedging our Woods If you have driven in from Ashby Lodge, or walked round the Wilderness Road, you can't help but have noticed the hedge, partly laid, partly new planted. The impact is greater than we could have imagined. This hedge would once have served the purpose in keeping stock out of the Wilderness, which
- [Bulletin 103 - January 2015](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-103-january-2015/) - How do you feel about solar farms? - you know, those serried ranks of sloping glass panels covering fields here and there beside the motorways. I ask because we are about to get one, at the southern end of the estate near Ashby de la Zouch. It's the brainchild of our son Richard, who was
- [Bulletin 102 - December 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-102-december-2014/) - The National Trust, who own the church here at Staunton, are having new lead put on the tower and the north aisle. Their access is across our main forecourt and I was shown the document covering procedures and precautions for bringing in scaffolding etcetera. 'That's a lot of paper,' I commented. 'That's nothing,' the Trust
- [Bulletin 101 - November 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-101-november-2014/) - .... Lot 10: The Georgian mansion known as Staunton Harold Hall together with seventy four acres of land and the cottage at Melbourne Lodge .... any increase on £12,000? ... SOLD, to Thomas Oakley (Luton) Ltd, Demolition Contractors. That was on 12th October 1954, sixty years ago this month, surely the nadir of Staunton's fortunes.
- [Bulletin 100 - October 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-100-october-2014/) - Bulletin 100 - quite a milestone. When we bought Staunton Harold Hall eleven and a half years ago all the public lawns and paths around the house had been in public use for fifty years. We needed to mark off part of it to give the family some private area and I put up notices
- [Bulletin 99 - August 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-99-august-2014/) - Rural Crime When a farmer shoots a burglar or his bull gores a walker the rural community hits the headlines; for the remainder, countryside matters go largely unreported. We sometimes feel that the police also think of crime in terms of towns and cities, especially when you're reporting an incident from the middle of a
- [Bulletin 98 - 29th July 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-98-29th-july-2014/) - WOODLANDS TO LET: On the Coleorton side of the estate, a couple of miles outside Ashby, we are offering small woods to let from the end of September. Planted about twenty years ago they are ready for thinning, the timber suitable for logs or chips. People renting a wood will have exclusive use for logging,
- [Bulletin 97 - 23rd June 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-97-23rd-june-2014/) - Staunton and the Juggernauts Who remembers how things were sixty years ago when the Staunton Harold Estate was sold up? Not many of us now, and when I think back it's hard to recall how different it all was, the buildings mostly semi-derelict, the three drives coming in little better than farm tracks. Having bought
- [Bulletin 96 - 23rd May 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-96-23rd-may/) - Staunton Harold - Land of Opportunities Daughter Caroline and her husband, Andrew, have just taken on David in a permanent, if hybrid, role. He had previously helped out on the farm, now he also works in their land agency business. So it might be dagging sheep's bottoms till ten o'clock, the reviewing planning applications for
- [Bulletin 95 - 22nd April 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-95-22nd-april/) - Win some, lose some 'STAUNTON HAROLD - A COUNTRY ESTATE IN THE 21ST CENTURY.' Our new booklet is now published, and available from the Tearooms in the Ferrers Centre, the Red Hut in the Estate Car Park and the Tourist Office in Ashby de la Zouch. The price is £3.50, and copies can be sent
- [Bulletin 77 - November 2012](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-77-november-2012/) - In a handout I wrote recently describing the new footpath, Harpurs Crossing, I mentioned the 'Thringstone Fault', where the Leicestershire coalfield ends in a dramatic upward arc. It set me thinking of a time when my father and I were in the mining business. About forty five years ago the National Coal Board took over
- [Bulletin 78 - December 2012](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-78-december-2012/) - November, a notable month of endings and beginnings. Yesterday saw the end of work on the TopLake for this year; thousands of tonnes of silt have been pumped upstream to dry out when the weather allows. As to beginnings, on the eighth of the month arrived Phoebe Victoria, a sister for Freddie and Beatrix. That
- [Bulletin 79 - January 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-79-december-2012/) - Those of you familiar with our gentle valley will know that there are two main lakes, linked by a smaller pond just below the Golden Gate bridge. The lowest of these, the SerpentineLake covers nine acres and winds off northwards out of sight towards Melbourne. This lake is not on the 'Kyps' engraving of about
- [Bulletin 80 - February 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-80-february-2013/) - It's happened again - the powers that be seem intent on salami-slicing our estate into so many long thin strips. Thirty years ago the A42 was built to the east of the Nottingham - Birmingham road and trapped a long sliver of our farm and woodland in between. Now the proposed route of the HS2
- [Bulletin 81 - March 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-81-march-2013/) - Next month marks the tenth anniversary of our buying Staunton Harold Hall. We bid for it by 'telephone auction' over a period of many weeks. Our understanding was that our main rival was a man from Yorkshire who had been much in evidence, and had prepared plans to divide the house into fourteen flats. This
- [Bulletin 82 - April 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-82-april-2013/) - A magazine article about the first motor cars on historic properties has set me thinking about the course of events here at Staunton Harold. When the tenth Earl Ferrers died in 1911 the title and estate passed to a cousin, an architect practising in Kent. It was probably he who made a garage by punching
- [Bulletin 83 - May 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-83-may-2013/) - O to be in England now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm tree-bole are in tiny leaf................ HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD Robert Browning Well, for April read May in this year of delayed seasons. Yesterday I found another
- [Bulletin 84 - June 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-84-june-2013/) - May has seen some new developments. Since Rolo died last year we have been looking for a new dog, and the search has proved surprisingly difficult. Eventually we learnt of a litter of ten black Labrador pups on a farm near Melbourne, and collected an eight week old bitch last week. Since the breeder's name
- [Bulletin 85 - July 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-85-july-2013/) - The van driver from Hull - yes, HULL - was reversing on her wing mirrors when she hit the statue, toppling it off the plinth. Smashed beyond repair, it had stood for twenty years in our Ferrers Centre courtyard. It was entitled 'GUST' and, as they say, it's an ill wind which brings nobody any
- [Bulletin 86 - August 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-86-august-2013/) - 'Ash' is leaving us at the end of the week, taking some holiday time before going back to university. He had sent us his CV a month ago, a conservation student at Aberystwith looking for work experience. More often than not we cannot match the requirements, but his list of experiences included work on revetments,
- [Bulletin 87 - September 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-87-september-2013/) - In 2005, not long after we moved into the Hall, I wrote a booklet about Staunton Harold, focussing largely on the history of the house and hamlet. Being an indifferent salesman it has taken me eight years to dispose of the two thousand copies we had printed, but finally we've sold out. So now I'm
- [Bulletin 88 - October 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-88-october-2013/) - 'Downton Abbey' has become required Sunday night viewing again on the 'tele', this time set in the period after the first World War. For all the depredations of the war, and looming death duties, the earl still seems to have an awful lot of servants scuttling around below stairs. Here at Staunton the tenth earl
- [Bulletin 89 - November 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-89-november-2013/) - Carving up the Countryside: Public Footpaths and HS-2 Boris Johnson and George Osbourne have come back from China full of admiration for the way they get things done. They wonder why we can't do the same; well I can tell them - we've bogged ourselves down in bureaucracy. On my desk this morning is a
- [Bulletin 92 - Feb 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-92-feb-2014/) - The Lodge and iron railings at the southern end of the Estate were built about two hundred years ago at the end of the Georgian era, with a nod to the Gothic style in the arched front door. The lodge-keeper’s job was to keep the entrance gates closed, and open them when a visitor approached.
- [Bulletin 90 - December 2013](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-90-december-2013/) - 'Money doesn't grow on trees', very true, and nor does their timber make the owner very rich; high labour costs and cheap imports from well wooded countries make sure of that. Most owners love their woods, and manage them despite the poor return. Here at Staunton Harold we have about four hundred acres, and manage
- [Bulletin 91 - January 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-91-january-2014/) - 'A man can't farm with wood n' water', which is to say that crops won't grow under the shade of trees, or with their roots in waterlogged ground. This old adage was still current when I started planting trees at Staunton fifty years ago. The farmers were mildly resentful, but I pointed out that no
- [Bulletin 93 - March 2014](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/bulletin-93-march-2014/) - Economy of Scale Trumps Localism Some three hundred acres of our Staunton Harold Estate are occupied by a diary farm, the largest in the area. For as long as anyone can remember the milk has gone for processing to nearby Ashby de la Zouch But not any more; Ashby is closing, and the tanker will

## Pages

- [Home Page](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/) - Discover the charm of Staunton Harold Estate in Leicestershire — explore scenic walks, independent arts & crafts studios, local food, wedding venue services, and unique holiday accommodation on a historic English estate.
- [Lion Court](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/lion-court/) - Lion Court Business Centre offers luxury office space to rent in Leicestershire, with flexible workspaces in a professional setting at Staunton Harold Estate.
- [Holidays](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/holidays/) - Escape to Deerpark Lodge at Staunton Harold Estate. Enjoy luxury countryside accommodation in Leicestershire, perfect for relaxing breaks and rural getaways.
- [History](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/history/) - Explore the history of Staunton Harold Estate in Leicestershire, from its historic origins to its rich heritage, beautiful grounds and lasting legacy.
- [Deerpark Lodge](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/deerpark-lodge/) - Stay at Deerpark Lodge in Leicestershire for a peaceful countryside escape. Luxury accommodation set within the beautiful Staunton Harold Estate.
- [Weddings](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/weddings/) - Discover Staunton Harold Estate, a Georgian country house wedding venue offering exclusive ceremonies, receptions & bespoke celebrations near Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
- [Timber Supplies](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/timber/) - High-quality oak beams and bespoke timber from Staunton Sawmill, Leicestershire. Locally sourced timber and delivery available.
- [The Artisan Show - Summer](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/artisan-show/) - Visit The Artisan Show at Staunton Harold - 21–23 August 2026. Browse handcrafted goods by top British makers, enjoy live demos, music, artisan food & drink.
- [Events and Functions](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/events-and-functions/) - Exclusive hire events and functions venue at Staunton Harold Estate near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Perfect for corporate hospitality, festive parties and family celebrations.
- [Contact us](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/contact-us/) - Contact Staunton Harold Estate to discuss weddings, private events and venue hire near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Speak with our friendly team today.
- [Christmas Artisan Show](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/christmas-artisan-show/) - Celebrate the festive season at Staunton Harold's Christmas Artisan Show — shop handcrafted gifts and enjoy seasonal food & drink in historic surroundings.
- [Christmas Special - Music At The Hall](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/music-at-the-hall/) - [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_fullwidth_image src=”https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/large-banner-01.jpg” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ vertical_offset_tablet=”0″ horizontal_offset_tablet=”0″ z_index_tablet=”0″ box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” use_border_color=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_fullwidth_image][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ background_color=”#81164e” vertical_offset_tablet=”0″ horizontal_offset_tablet=”0″ box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” header_text_color=”#ffffff” header_font_size=”60px” header_3_text_color=”#ffffff” background_color=”#81164e” vertical_offset_tablet=”0″ horizontal_offset_tablet=”0″ z_index_tablet=”0″ text_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” text_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” link_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” link_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ul_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_vertical_length_tablet=”0px” ul_text_shadow_blur_strength_tablet=”1px” ol_text_shadow_horizontal_length_tablet=”0px”
- [Sadler's Loft](https://www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk/sadlers-loft/) - The Deerpark Lodge is situated in a woodland clearing within private parkland in the grounds of Staunton Harold Hall. The Staunton Harold Estate is a traditional country estate of some 2000 acres centered on the great Georgian mansion, Staunton Harold Hall.
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