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Stanford Hall

© Elizabeth Batt

For lovers of history, fine arts and magnificent architecture, Stanford Hall in Lutterworth Leicestershire, is a treasure you’ll not want to miss. Built in the 1690’s by William Smith for Sir Roger Cave, the hall is a monument to British history at its finest.

The present owner, Lady Braye is the third woman in her family to inherit the hall and the peerage through direct descent. Dedicated to preserving the history of the hall, Lady Braye inhabits and cares for it with the help of her husband, Lt Col Aubrey-Fletcher. Lady Braye I’m sure, could enthrall us quite easily with the interesting historical facts that surround Stanford Hall, but one in particular amused me. It concerned Lady Braye’s grandfather and his wish to introduce electric into the house in the 1890’s. How to do so with a minimum of fuss and disruption to both hall and occupants?

“He ingeniously installed a turbine machine, powered by damming a stretch of the Avon, to supply the current. Wiring the house…involved taking up just two floorboards in each room. Down one hole a piece of meat was dangled while a ferret, with flex around its neck, was dispatched down the other. The ferret took the shortest possible course to the meat and the wiring was in place! The lights were triumphantly turned on in 1898.” --Lady Braye.

The Building of Stanford hall

The Cave family was originally from Yorkshire and farmed the land as tenants of Selby Abbey from 1430 until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Sir Thomas Cave – “The Purchaser”, bought the land from the king in 1540. The hall wasn’t built immediately however. It wasn’t until the 1690’s that the previous house was ordered pulled down and Sir Roger Cave commissioned the services of William Smith of Warwick to build the present home for the grand sum of £2,137.10s.7d.

Rather than maintaining the hall in the condition that it was built, circumstances forced the hall into disrepair. In 1939, when Lady Braye’s grandfather took up residence, the Sacred Heart nuns who attempted to care for the interior of the hall during the war years, used the house as a school. Sadly they couldn’t maintain the roof that had begun to deteriorate and the house after the war went unoccupied for several years.

Lady Braye’s grandfather died in 1952 and her father, Adrian, 7th Lord Braye was left with the empty house that was badly in need of repair. Thankfully the Ministry of Works appreciated the historical value and appeal of Stanford Hall and on the recommendation of the Historic Buildings Council imparted a large grant towards the restoration of Stanford Hall. Lady Braye’s parents stepped up to the challenge, moved back into the hall and opened it to the public in 1958.

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