BUILDINGS
LOUGHBOROUGH MANOR HOUSE:
Located opposite the parish church in SPARROW HILL, LOUGHBOROUGH MANOR
HOUSE is now used as a restaurant. It has a fine SWITHLAND SLATE roof and
a central gable facing the road through which the original front door would
have run. The recent discovery of a stone fireplace indicates that it was
originally built in the mid-fourteenth century. EDWARD, FIRST LORD HASTINGS
OF LOUGHBOROUGH was the first Lord of the Manor to live here - indeed, the
first Lord of the Manor to live in the town at all.
At the rear of the Hall were 36 acres of grounds, including the "HEN PARK", horse closes and "THE CONERY", a private rabbit warren which gave its name to the nearby street "THE CONERIES". The grounds also contained a fishpond known as "The Conery Pool" and there was probably also a private chapel here.
The house remained in the Hastings family until 1654 when Fernando, the Sixth Earl of Huntingdon was forced to sell it to cover family debts. It was bought jointly by Thomas Martin, John Ireland and the Rector of the Parish Church, OLIVER BROMSKILL for £1,390. After the Restoration of KING CHARLES II, BROMSKILL was ejected as Rector. As a result of meetings held in the MANOR HOUSE, BROMSKILL went on to become an early leading light of the Non-Conformist movement in LOUGHBOROUGH.
The MANOR HOUSE was sold again in 1708, this time to Robert Ferryman, whose family owned in for over 100 years. Later owners included the Allsop, Thorp and Peach families. Foundations of an old stone wall have been found in the centre of the road on Sparrow Hill. This probably marked part of the original boundary of the Manor House estate.
The ground floor was later divided into two shops but much fine timbering survives on the upper floor. There are also two medieval fireplaces, one of which has a lintel made of a huge block of CHARNWOOD FOREST stone.
THE "GREAT HOUSE" OR "GREAT HALL":
Now occupied by LOWE'S ANTIQUE FURNITURE SHOP, this
is on CHURCH GATE, also opposite the parish church. Like the MANOR HOUSE,
it has SWITHLAND SLATE roofs and has been variously known as the "GREAT
HALL", the "GREAT HOUSE" and "LORD'S PLACE".
The date of the original building is unknown but it has a core of ancient timber. It certainly once belonged to either the medieval GUILD OF JESUS or the GUILD OF ST GEORGE and may well have been built by them. (Both of these were charitable societies providing help for the poor and needy.) The house still has a fine example of an Elizabethan chimney stack and old timbers indicate the width of the building before it was extended.
KING HENRY VII reputedly stayed here in 1486, following his coronation. This was part of a "Royal Progress" during which he "roode to LOUGHBOROUGH", where a chronicler noted that "the stokks and prisonnes wer reasonabley fylled with Harlatts and Vagabounds". Leland, writing in 1551, says - "At the south east end of the church is a fair house of timber, where once King Henry VII did lie".
It had become a private house by 1570, belonging to one Thomas Evington and soon after that it passed into the hands of the Crown. In 1589, QUEEN ELIZABETH I granted it to Thomas Butler and Walter Coppinger of London who sold it to SIR GEORGE HASTINGS, FOURTH EARL OF HUNTINGDON. The LOWE family first became associated with the building in 1891.
Next to this hall was an old house, now demolished, which was the birthplace of GEORGE DAVYS. He was to become tutor to the young PRINCESS VICTORIA and, later, BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH.
BURLEIGH HOUSE:
The original BURLEIGH HOUSE had only two storeys and became renowned as the
headquarters of the Royalist forces of LOUGHBOROUGH during the Civil War when,
unlike most of the rest of CHARNWOOD, the town supported CHARLES I. It played
a key part in THE BATTLE OF COTES BRIDGE in March of 1644 when it served as
the base for the local Royalist forces under HENRY HASTINGS, LORD LOUGHBOROUGH.
The house was rebuilt in stone in the 1650s and by 1688 it was owned by SIR WILLIAM JESSON. The TATE family, who took it over in about 1700, greatly altered the interior and added a third floor. The family remained at the house until the 1850s when they altered the exterior and sold it on to the TYNTE family, who never lived there but let it out to tenants.
The house was bought by ALDERMAN HOWARD COLTMAN who stayed until 1959 when it was bought by LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY, who demolished it in 1961. The grounds are said to have contained a Dovecote, an Ice House and an Arbour bearing the HASTINGS Coat of Arms.
QUEEN'S HALL:
This building, which now houses the CHARNWOOD MUSEUM, began life as the town's
first public swimming baths. It was a gift to the town from JOSEPH GRIGGS,
a wealthy timber merchant who went on to become the town's very first mayor.
LOUGHBOROUGH OLD RECTORY:
The little that survives of the original RECTORY lies very close to ALL SAINTS
PARISH CHURCH in Rectory Place. It is impossible to give an exact date of
construction but as the first Rector of LOUGHBOROUGH - Bertram, Dean of Lichfield
- was appointed in 1193, it is reasonable to suppose that it was built close
to this date. The earliest direct reference to a Rectory here comes in 1228
in a document referring to "the dwelling house of the church, which was
Robert de Cortlinstok's near the church". Cortlinstoke was patron of
a fifth part of the Parish Church and it seems that the church had acquired
the building from him several years earlier. At that time, and well into the
17th century, the Rectory was situated in substantial grounds. It also had
a tithe barn, a Glebe barn, a hay barn, pig-stys and stables. The stables
were used by both Parliamentary and Royalist forces during the Civil War,
a conflict which also affected the clergy. The Rector of 1644, NICHOLAS HALL,
only just escaped from Royalist Cavalry when they attempted to seize him in
his own pulpit. He was later evicted from the Rectory and replaced by OLIVER
BROMSKILL. BROMSKILL was himself evicted in 1662 and NICHOLAS HALL was restored
as Rector.
The earliest known picture of the Old Rectory is an engraving dated 1794 which Nichols used in his "HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF LEICESTER". In this, the front of the building faces the church and has a square headed front door with four gable running into a long hall roof. The bones of the original medieval structure are clearly visible. Local architect CHRISTOPHER STAVELEY supervised major renovations in 1799-1800 at a cost of £1,350.
Disaster struck in 1826 when a devastating fire swept through the building, gutting the interior and destroying the roof. As a result of this, the Rectory was rebuilt in a Georgian style and the frontage repositioned at right angles to the original. It continued like this until 1958 when the bulding and much of the grounds were bought by the Corporation as the site for old peoples' housing. Work by local archaeologists generated a renewed interest in the building and it was decided that the medieval core of the Rectory should remain. Consequently, all but the sections seen today was demolished and restoration carried out on the original portions. Today, the Old Rectory is a museum and its grounds are one of the rare green spaces in this part of town.
SECRET TUNNELS:
As with most towns of its age, LOUGHBOROUGH has many legends of secret tunnels
connecting two or more buildings. The largest reputed network of tunnels in
the town is supposed to connect the OLD RECTORY, the MANOR HOUSE, the THREE
NUNS pub, the PARISH CHURCH and the site of LEMYNGTON'S HOUSE. If they exist
at all, they are probably medieval drainage systems similar to ones found
in CHARNWOOD monastic sites. Drainage systems may be far less romantic than
secret tunnels but they would be no less of an engineering achievement. And
who is to say that, if they do exist, they were never used as an escape route
at some point?