Built between 1580 – 1588 by the Willoughby family, this ancestral home and its inhabitants have bore witness to key periods in British history. With links to Lady Jane Grey the 9 – Day Queen, the English Civil War and World War II, this venue has many stories to tell.

There have been reported ghost sightings and paranormal occurrences for many years from staff who lived on site through to visitors and witnessed by the Haunted Heritage team.

This is a large venue with a great deal of history to work with, a perfect location for Haunted Heritage. The Team are very much looking forward to working with this venue and its ancestors.

Site of a former priory

Not a great deal is known about the building other than it was once owned by the Allyn family.

The current building can be dated back 1556 (Mary 1 Queen of England), however it was built on the site of a former priory which would have been part of the dissolution of the monasteries 1536-1541.

The surrounding area would have been a mix of coal mining and farming.

The foundations of this foundry can still be seen to this day on the grounds. The bridgehouse and the engine house were converted into dwellings and survived until the 1970s, when the buildings became so derelict that the engine house was demolished. The site was scheduled to become an ancient monument after pressure from Leicestershire Industrial History Society or LIHS. In 1981, the site was acquired by North West Leicestershire District Council and they sponsored a community project which was aimed to restore the site and develop it as a museum and country park. Today in 2019, the bridgehouse is now a museum run by the Moira Furnace Museum Trust, dedicated to the history and heritage of this once grand blast furnace.

In 1669, vast parts of the original Manor House were demolished to make way for a larger, more lavish extension, retaining of course, the Great Hall and Oak Room.
In 1845, Abington Manor was sold to a Londoner who leased out the Manor to Dr Octavius Pritchard who used the property as a mental asylum. It remained as an asylum until 1892. Conditions in the asylum are not believed to have been overly cruel or unpleasant, however it has been reported that during this time two patients hung themselves. The property further exchanged hands in 1897 when it was given to the people of Northampton. It has remained as a museum until present day

Guy’s Cliffe has been occupied since Saxon times and derives its name from the legendary Guy of Warwick. Guy is supposed to have retired to a hermitage on this site, this legend led to the founding of a chantry in 1423 and the rock-carved stables and storehouses still remain.

The house has had many uses and notably a hospital during World War I and in the World War II became a school for evacuated children. Guy’s Cliffe estate was broken up and sold in 1947. The new owner of the house intended to convert it into a hotel, but these plans came to nothing and the house fell into disrepair. The steady and sad decline of this historic site is now the romantic partial ruin we see today.

1849 the railway arrived in Matlock bringing with it a new trade in tourism.  The Grand Pavilion was built 1910 on the site of the former stables and blacksmith yard next to the river Derwent.  Its aim to host entertainment and events for the masses.

Within a few years of opening First World War soldiers were billeted on site. They also spent time here recuperating from injuries

After the disruption of WWII the Grand Pavilion saw a variety of events and eventually became a nightclub with misdeed and eventually closed.

You wont be disappointed!

It is believed that Robert De Herle bought the land and had the house built between 1258 & 1295.
For nearly 700 years the house remained a family dwelling. In the early part of the 16th century, the house was modernised and it was around this period the house may have been owned by the Digby family, who were caught up in the War of the Roses and the Battle at Bosworth in 1485. And as history tell us Sir Everard Digby achieved notoriety as one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605; as an associate of Guy Fawkes