Belgrave Hall

Belgrave Hall an amazing 18th century building and was home to several families throughout its time as a family dwelling.

Built in 1709 by Edmund Cradock, a Leicester hosiery merchant, the building was completed in 1713 unfortunely Edmund and his dear wife Ann died only two years after its completion.

The house, fronting onto Church Road, on a site adjacent to Belgrave Church. The house is a three-storey building, and you can still see today the lead rainwater heads with the Cradock family crest, some of which have a 1709 date and others with 1713.

Belgrave Hall has been home to many wealthy business men over the years, and all the owners have played a key part to the economic, social and charitable life of the community.

The family of John Ellis purchased Belgrave Hall in 1845 and were noted for their good work in the community. Ellis, a wealthy businessman, was responsible for bringing the railway to Leicester in 1833.

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.

A house demolished and rebuilt 4 times

Originally built as a deer park in the 13th century the house would have initially been built around an enclosed courtyard.
The house has been demolished and rebuilt a total of 4 times however the courtyard area has remained unchanged.

The Herrick family owned this property as a family residence for 350 years but in 1939 the building was taken over by the Ministry of Defence and worked as a sub listening station to Bletchley Park.

The Guild of Corpus Christi
This Guild was the richest in the town and a powerful force in medieval Leicester. The emblem of the Guild, the Host and Chalice, is featured in 15th century painted glass window fragments in the Mayor’s Parlour. The Guild had their own altar in the Church of St Martin (now Leicester Cathedral) and used the Great Hall for banquets at times of high festivals. Originally the Great Hall had a beaten earth floor which would have been laid with rushes and heated by an open hearth, with smoke rising to the roof. The Guildhall in its present form incorporates a later Tudor extension to the original Great Hall.

A threat of demolition
With its main civic purpose gone, the Guildhall became neglected. Townspeople considered it old-fashioned and gloomy and it was under threat of demolition in 1876. Fortunately the newly-created City Council embarked on a major renovation programme in 1922, spearheaded by the Leicester Archaeological Society. The Guildhall was reopened to the public in 1926 and today, as one of the city’s most important medieval buildings and an iconic local landmark, enjoys protection as a Grade I listed building.

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

Site of a former priory

In the mid 18th century the house had an estate of 600 acres and was set in a fenced park, but in 1789 the house was said to be ‘hastening fast to decay’ and the property was subsequently dismembered for coal mining, the house tenanted as a farm and the outbuildings converted for use as a pottery in 1794. In 1895, when the mining had destroyed too much of the estate for farming to be viable, it was converted into tenements. It then lay derelict for some time before being purchased by a Miners’ Welfare club, which employed Vernon Brice ARIBA to make it habitable in 1953. The house now stands in a remnant of the former park, once again derelict!

Over the castles 800-year history many powerful people have stayed here.  Simon De Montfort was a powerful man who inherited Leicester Castle and became the 6th Earl of Leicester in 1208. In 1264 Simon De Montfort led the Barons’ rebellion. He defeated King Henry III to become the uncrowned King Of England.

John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward III, inherited Leicester Castle in 1361. He was a solider, statesman and one of the richest men in England. He always liked Leicester Castle and made many improvements to it making it an extremely grand venue, he stayed here until his death in 1399.

Leicester Castle was also besieged, captured and ransacked during the English Civil War by the Royalist under the command of King Charles I and Prince Rupert in May 1645.

In 1821 the Great Hall was converted in courtrooms and used up until 1992, it was here where the trial took place for the famous Leicester’s Green Bicycle Murder.

Today it is home to Leicester Castle Business Castle, part of De Montfort University.