Hallaton Hall (Hallaton)

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formerly private residence, formally school for blind, now broken up into private houses and apartments.Hallaton Hall stands on the east side of the village, its grounds, surrounded by a high wall, occupying an island site between three roads. The site is presumably that of either Bardolf's or Engaine's manor-house. From 1713 until the middle of the 19th century it was the home of the Bewicke family. In 1848 Calverley Bewicke leased it to Lady Hinrich but she seems to have moved to the Manor House about 1860. (fn. 6) Thereafter the hall had various tenants and at the end of the 19th century was leased to Mr. S. N. Bankhart who kept a large indoor and outdoor staff and had about 40 hunters in the stables. (fn. 7) In 1958 it was occupied by nuns of the order of Our Lady of Good Counsel as a training school for novices. The core of the house dates from the early 18th century when it was a long two-story building with seven-window frontages facing east and west. (fn. 8) At the close of the century large stucco-covered wings were added at each end, that on the south side having a higher central block, forming a new and imposing frontage to the garden. On the west side a Tuscan portico was built between the two projecting wings, largely concealing the entrance front of the original house. Part of the extensive brick stabling appears to have been built at the same time. Probably in 1903, a date which appears on a detached music room at the rear, the house was again much enlarged, service quarters and a conservatory being added on the east side and several bays thrown out. The original block contains an altered oak staircase of early-18th-century date and the south wing has a fire-place and enriched ceilings of c. 1800. The interior was lavishly embellished with 'Jacobean' fittings about a hundred years later.

From: 'Hallaton', A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5: Gartree Hundred (1964), pp. 121-133. URL: www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22052 Date accessed: 15 July 2009.