Houses to visit in Central England

HEREFORDSHIRE

BERRINGTON HALL (NT)

Nr. Leominster, Hereforshire HR6 0DW

Tel: 01568 615721

Elegant, late eighteenth-century Georgian house, designed by Henry Holland, is set in parkland landscaped by Lancelot Brown.

EASTNOR CASTLE (NT)

Nr Ledbury, Herefordshire HR8 1RL

Tel: 01531 633160

Early nineteenth-century castle designed by Robert Smirke in the manner of a medieval Welsh-border fortress.

MOCCAS COURT

Moccas, Herefordshire HR2 9LH

Tel: 01981 500019

Eighteenth-century house designed by Anthony Keck, with interiors by Robert Adam.

LANCASHIRE

ASTLEY HALL

Astley Park, Chorley, Lancashire. PR7 1NP

Tel: 01257 515555

Timber-framed Tudor house with seventeenth-century additions.

BROWSHOLME HALL

Clitheroe Road, Cowark, Clitheroe, Lancashire BB7 3DE

Tel: 01254 827160/01254 826719

An early sixteenth-century house, with interiors altered by James Wyatt during the eighteenth century.

HOGHTON TOWER

Hoghton, Preston, Lancashire PR5 0SH

Tel: 01254 852986

Sixteenth-century house with additions of c. 1700 restored in the nineteenth century.

LEICESTERSHIRE

ROCKINGHAM CASTLE

Rockingham, Market Harborough, Leicestershire LE16 8TH

Tel: 01536 770240

Medieval castle with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century alterations, restored in the nineteenth century by Anthony Salvin.

STANFORD HALL

Lutterworth, Leicestershire LE17 6DH

Tel: 01788 860250

Late seventeenth-century William and Mary house on the banks of the River Avon, designed by William Smith of Warwick, with fine 1690s interiors.

LINCOLNSHIRE

BELTON HOUSE (NT)

Belton, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG32 2LS

Tel: 01476 566116

A fine country house of 1685-88, with well-preserved interiors.

BURGHLEY HOUSE

Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 3JY

Tel: 01780 752451

An Elizabethan great house with the main interiors remodelled by William Talman in the late seventeenth century.

GRIMSTHORPE CASTLE (NT)

Grimsthorpe, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 0LY

Tel: 01778 591205

The castle’s North Front is Sir John Vanbrugh’s last major work.

HARLAXTON MANOR

Harlaxton, Grantham, Linclonshire NG32 1AG

Tel: 01476 403000

Early nineteenth-century neo-Elizabethan house with unusual mixture of interior architectural styles.

LIVERPOOL

SPEKE HALL (NT)

The Walk, Speke, Merseyside, Liverpool L2$ 1XD

Tel: 01514 277231

Half-timbered house dating from 1490, with some fine early seventeenth-century plasterwork.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

ALTHORP

Althorp Park, Northampton NN7 4HQ

Tel: 01604 770107

Seat of the Earls Spencer, a late sixteenth-century house remodelled by Henry Holland in the late eighteenth century.

BOUGHTON HOUSE

Boughton, Kettering, Northamptonshire NN16 9UP

Tel: 01536 515731

Built in the late seventeenth century in the French style, for the 1st Duke of Montagu (now a seat of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry).

CANONS ASHBY HOUSE (NT)

Canons Ashby, Daventry, Northamptonshire NN11 3SD

Tel: 01327 861900

Elizabethan manor house, with some early eighteenth-century alterations.

COTTESBROOKE HALL

Cottesbrooke, Northamptonshire NN6 8PF

Tel: 01604 505808

Early eighteenth-century country house, the central block with flanking pavilions, attributed to Francis Smith of Warwick.

DEENE PARK

Corby, Northamptonshire NN17 3EW

Tel: 01780 450278

Sixteenth-century country house, extended in the later eighteenth century.

KELMARSH HALL

Kelmarsh, Northampton NN6 9LT

Tel: 01604 686543

Early eighteenth-century house designed by James Gibbs.

KIRBY HALL (NT)

Gretton, nr Corby, Northamptonshire NN17 5EN

Tel: 01536 203230

Richly decorated Elizabethan mansion built for the courtier Sir Christopher Hatton.

LAMPORT HALL

Lamport, Northampton NN6 9HD

Tel: 01604 686272

Mid-seventeenth-century house, designed by John Webb, with wings added in the eighteenth century.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

NEWSTEAD ABBEY

Newstead Abbey Park, Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire NG15 8NA

Tel: 01623 455900

Founded as an Augustinian monastery in the late twelfth century, Newstead Abbey was converted into a house by Sir John Byron in the 1540s, and remodelled in the mid-nineteenth century. The abbey was home to the poet Lord Byron, who sold it in 1818.

WOLLATON HALL

Wollaton, Nottingham NG8 2AE

Tel: 01159 153900

An important sixteenth-century house designed by Robert Smythson (now a museum). A classic example of the Elizabethan so-called “prodigy” house.

RUTLAND

BELVOIR CASTLE

Nr Grantham, Rutland NG32 1PD

Tel: 01476 871000/871002

Seat of the Dukes of Rutland, dating from the eleventh century, Belvoir was rebuilt in the early nineteenth century, with a fine series of Regency interiors.

SHROPSHIRE

ATTINGHAM PARK (NT)

Atcham, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY4 4TP

Tel: 01743 708162

Late eighteenth-century country house, designed by George Stewart for 1st Lord Berwick, with a picture gallery by John Nash.

STAFFORDSHIRE

WHITMORE HALL

Whitmore, nr Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire ST5 5HW

Tel: 01782 680478

Sixteenth-century house extended in the seventeenth century.

WARWICKSHIRE

ARBURY HALL

Nuneaton. Warwickshire CV10 7PT

Tel: 02476 382804

An Elizabethan house remodelled in the mid-eighteenth century Gothic Revival style by Henry Keene.

BADDESLEY CLINTON (NT)

Rising Lane, Baddesley Clinton Village, Knowle, Solihull, Warwickshire B93 0DQ

Tel: 01564 783294

A medieval, moated manor house, mostly dating from the fifteenth century.

CHARLECOTE PARK (NT)

Warwick, Warwickshire CV35 9ER

Tel: 01789 470277

Sixteenth-century manor house, restored in the nineteenth century.

FARNBOROUGH HALL (NT)

Farnborough, Banbury, Warwickshire OX17 1DU

Tel: 01295 690002

Mid-eighteenth-century, stone built house with fine plasterwork decoration and landscaped garden.

HONINGTON HALL

Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 5AA

Tel: 01608 661434

Red-brick house, dating from the 1680s, with the interiors altered in the mid-eighteenth century.

PACKWOOD HOUSE (NT)

Lapworth, Solihull, Warwickshire B94 6AT

Tel: 01564 783294

Sixteenth-century manor house restored in the early twentieth century.

RAGLEY HALL

Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5NH

Tel: 01789 762090

Late seventeenth-century house, completed in the mid-eighteenth century, partly by James Gibbs.

WARWICK CASTLE

Warwick, Warwickshire CV34 4QU

Tel: 0870 442 2000

Built as a medieval fortress in 1068, as part of a defensive chain created by William I, the Norman castle was later reconstructed, extended and embellished in the fourteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; it is now a museum run by Madame Tussaud’s.

WEST MIDLANDS

WIGHTWICK MANOR (NT)

Wightwick Bank, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV6 8EE

Tel: 01902 761400

Nineteenth-century house with Morris and Co decoration.

WORCESTERSHIRE

HAGLEY HALL

Hagley, Worcestershire DY9 9LG

The last great Palladian house, designed by Sanderson Miller in 1753.

HANBURY HALL (NT)

School Road, Droitwich, Worcestershire WR9 7EA

Tel: 01527 821214

Handsome country house built in 1701, representing the finest Restoration taste in the 1670s, with a fine painted staircase.

MADRESFIELD COURT

Madresfield, Lavern WR13 5AU

Tel: 01684 573614

A sixteenth-century moated manor house rebuilt in the nineteenth century by Philip Hardwick.

WITLEY COURT (EH)

Great Witley, Worcester WR6 6JT

Tel: 01299 896636

Ruin of a large mansion of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Witley originated as an early Jacobean manor house, which was transformed by John Nash in c. 1805 with the addition of huge Ionic porticoes to the north and south fronts. It was remodelled again in the 1850s in the Italianate style by Samuel Daukes.