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is recorded to have enclosed four farms on the estate on a single day, 6 December 1492, fencing off 160 acres and forcing 24 people to leave their homes and occupations. This was probably neither the first nor the last act of enclosure on the estate and by the mid-16th century the manor had probably been entirely enclosed and the village depopulated. In 1603 an ecclesiastical return records that "the patrone of
Brokesbie but one entire household within the said is Villiers, Esq." The same process of enclosure took place throughout the
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305:, leased the hall and 0.26 square kilometres (64 acres) from Joseph Grout Williams. He purchased the hall and 0.75 square kilometres (186 acres) for £22,000 in 1911 (£2,830,000 in 2024), and engaged Lutyens to carry out alterations to the interior of the building . Over the next four years he had the gardens extended westwards into the hall's parkland and had a lake and a stone
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of 1348–49 probably played a part, but its final extinction came about through a programme of enclosure carried out by the
Villiers. The arable common land was fenced off and turned into more profitable sheep pastures, at the cost of the residents losing their homes and livelihoods. Sir John Villiers
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in the late 16th century. It was extensively remodelled in 1890–91, and further changes were made in 1911. After it became an agricultural college in 1951, a set of college and residential buildings were constructed next to the hall. Further teaching blocks and a hostel were constructed in 1970–72,
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On 1 June 1945, shortly before the end of the war, Leicester and
Rutland County Councils jointly purchased the hall for £20,000 for use as an agricultural training college. It became the Brooksby Hall Training Centre for ex-servicemen, who were to be trained in agricultural methods under the
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Brooksby Hall was sold to the
Charlton family in 1850 but by 1863 it was boarded up and empty. It was purchased two years later by the Chaplin family, who lived there until 1891 when it was purchased by Joseph Grout Williams, a Welsh mining magnate. Although he did not live there, leaving the
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While the hall is now used for weddings, conferences and banquets, the rest of the estate forms part of the merged
Brooksby Melton College, which serves the county of Leicestershire and delivers a range of vocational courses. The college's administrative offices are housed in the hall.
199:, a line of minor gentry of Norman descent. The estate remained in Villiers hands for the next 500 years. At this time, Brooksby consisted of the hall, the nearby Church of St Michael and All Angels, a small number of peasants' houses and a field system with common land.
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occupation of the hall to his brother
Captain Stanley Williams, he commissioned the Leicester architects R. J. and J. Goodacre to carry out a major expansion and redevelopment. After Stanley Williams' death in a hunting accident, the
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constructed. An ornamental stream was also created around this time, piping water from the slope above the hall to create a series of cascades running through a rockery. Many trees and shrubs were planted, with a number coming from
266:. He did not live there and died in 1721. The hall subsequently passed through a series of owners and seems to have been rented out for a while in the late 18th century. In 1830 it passed by marriage to the Wyndhams of
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in London. Beatty also added an unusual reminder of his wartime service by putting a floating sea mine in the lake, though a story that he used to shoot at it for target practice is probably apocryphal.
211:, depopulating dozens of villages. A few traces of the village can still be seen to the south of the church in the form of a house platform and some fragmentary enclosures and mounds.
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leased the hall between 1894–95, and the banker H. T. Barclay also leased it in 1898. In 1904 the estate was advertised for sale, but failed to find a buyer when it was auctioned.
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44:. Situated 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) northeast of Leicester, the hall and the neighbouring church of St Michael and All Angels are the last remnants of the medieval village of
286:, leased it and buried his favourite horse, Dandy, under a large elm tree on the lawn in 1831. A memorial to the horse can still be seen on the west wall of the house.
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auspices of the
Leicestershire Agricultural Executive Committee. It became a Farm Institute in 1950–51, and was converted into an agricultural college in 1961.
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326:. Ethel Field died in 1932 and three years later Beatty put Brooksby up for sale. Once again it did not sell and Beatty passed the hall to his son
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was signed, David Beatty decided that the hall should be used as a convalescent home for naval officers if war broke out. On the outbreak of the
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slate. The building's main front faces south, away from the river, with a facade that has five bays and one and a half storeys faced with
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a year later this plan was put into effect, but the hall was subsequently opened to all ranks and services under the supervision of the
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carried out by the estate's owners, which turned its cultivated land into sheep pastures in order to profit from a boom in wool.
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A manor house has probably stood at
Brooksby since at least the 13th century, but the core of the present hall dates to the
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After the hall was burgled in a jewel robbery in the 1920s, the
Beattys preferred to live at their other residence,
238:, becoming the highest-ranking non-royal subject in the country before his assassination in 1628. The last baronet,
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in
Norfolk. They used it as a hunting lodge, with a number of illustrious individuals leasing it and the
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Over the next couple of hundred years, the village gradually became almost entirely depopulated. The
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It was subsequently left empty until 1906, when Captain (later Rear Admiral and Earl) Beatty of the
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in 1066. In the early 13th century the tenant of Brooksby, Gilbert de Seis, married a member of the
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With the death of Sir William Villiers the title became extinct and the manor was sold to
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With the villagers gone, the Villiers family prospered from the lucrative wool trade. Sir
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Brooksby Hall is built on an H-shaped plan. It was constructed from coursed squared
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in the 9th century AD. In the 15th and 16th centuries Brooksby was depopulated by
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Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society
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Hoskins, W.G. (1941–42). "The Deserted Villages of Leicestershire".
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Admiral David Beatty, occupier of Brooksby Hall from 1906–36
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A 31-acre garden adjoins the hall, leading down to the
451:. Leicestershire and Rutland Gardens Trust. p. 20
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on 3.2 square kilometres (800 acres) of land between
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and is also used as a wedding and conference venue.
488:. F. C. and J. Rivington, Otridge and son. p.
330:on his death in 1936. In September 1938, when the
152:Establishment and ownership by the Villiers family
16:Manor house to the northeast of Leicester, England
655:Brooksby, The Story of an Estate and its People
135:. The hall-cum-drawing room was redesigned by
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160:The most famous inhabitant of Brooksby Hall,
48:, which was founded during the period of the
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736:Grade II* listed buildings in Leicestershire
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446:"A History of the Gardens at Brooksby Hall"
100:on the site of the hall's old coach house.
65:railway line from Leicester to Peterborough
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301:and his immensely wealthy American wife,
433:. Yale University Press. pp. 114–5.
741:George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
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162:George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
716:16th-century establishments in England
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381:National Heritage List for England
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278:, later to gain the title of 7th
240:Sir William Villiers, 3rd Baronet
726:Country houses in Leicestershire
83:in 1916. It is now part of the
79:, the British commander at the
669:Brooksby Hall official website
413:Brooksby Hall: A Brief History
242:, died without issue in 1711.
139:in 1911 in an imitation early
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264:Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
516:. Vol. 22. p. 262.
485:Collins's Peerage of England
284:Charge of the Light Brigade
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431:Leicestershire and Rutland
429:Pevsner, Nikolaus (1985).
193:Norman Conquest of England
111:, with roofs covered with
731:Wyndham family residences
653:Hubbard, John R. (1977).
411:Lewin, Elizabeth (n.d.).
376:"BROOKSBY HALL (1075040)"
164:, was born there in 1592.
482:Collins, Arthur (1812).
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32:is a late–16th-century
444:Blaxland, Sue (2009).
292:Duchess of Marlborough
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246:After the Villiers
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260:Sir Nathan Wright
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61:River Wreake
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312:Kew Gardens
303:Ethel Field
204:Black Death
182:Old English
34:manor house
710:Categories
680:52°44′17″N
359:References
299:Royal Navy
272:Quorn Hunt
54:enclosures
683:1°00′27″W
340:Red Cross
228:Charles I
178:Brochesbi
168:The name
129:mullioned
113:Swithland
109:limestone
105:ironstone
38:Leicester
170:Brooksby
63:and the
46:Brooksby
455:30 June
307:pergola
224:James I
147:History
137:Lutyens
50:Danelaw
387:24 May
268:Cromer
189:badger
185:brochi
133:gables
449:(PDF)
328:David
322:near
457:2014
389:2015
234:and
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