Brooksby Hall

Brooksby Hall is a country house, now used as an agricultural college. Built in the late 16th century, it was substantially altered in the early 18th and early 19th centuries, then extended and remodelled in 1890–1891 by the Leicester architects R J and J Goodacre. Sir Edwin Lutyens undertook further minor alterations around 1912 for Lord Beatty.

The building is constructed of coursed squared ironstone with limestone dressings, with Swithland slate roofs and stone lateral and ridge stacks containing brick flues. It is planned as an H-shape and rises to two storeys with an attic storey above a seven-window range.

The principal front comprises a three-bay hall range between projecting wings. The central section features a part-glazed door with a moulded stone surround and cornice, flanked by 12-pane sash windows with moulded eared surrounds. The first floor has square six-pane sash windows with moulded stone surrounds, the centre one eared, and a battlemented parapet crowns the elevation. String courses run at first floor level and at the base of the parapet.

The west wing to the left is dominated by a large canted stone bay window of circa 1890, containing 8-pane sashes with moulded stone surrounds, a plain ironstone parapet, and limestone coping and quoins. Paired 12-pane sashes light the first floor with moulded eaved surrounds, whilst a 3-light leaded ovolo-moulded stone mullion window to the gable bears a hood mould and stone-coped gable with kneelers.

The east wing to the right, dating from 1891, mirrors the west wing but without the bay window, instead having paired sashes similar to the first-floor windows of the west wing and a comparable gable window. A further two-storey and attic extension at the far right, also of 1891, is similarly detailed with sash windows and gabled dormers behind a plain stone-coped parapet, terminating in a one-bay cross wing with a stone mullion gable window.

The 17th-century west wing displays two large projecting lateral stacks on its left side (towards the front and rear) and a two-storey gabled projection to the right of centre beside a stack, featuring 2-light ovolo-moulded stone mullion and transom windows to both ground and first floors—possibly a former stair turret. A two-storey projection at the centre, probably dating from the early 19th century, has a hipped roof and a large single-storey bow with a glazed garden door flanked by sash windows, all with moulded stone surrounds and a battlemented parapet above. First-floor windows feature wood lintels. The rear elevation of the hall range displays 4-light ovolo-moulded stone mullion and transom windows to ground and first floors on either side of a large central projecting stack.

The interior contains a stone cantilever staircase in the west wing with plain iron balusters and a ramped mahogany handrail. The hall was remodelled for Lord Beatty in early 18th-century style, featuring a green marble bolection-moulded fireplace with a painted wood surround and broken pediment overmantel, doorcases with pulvinated friezes, and a compartmented plaster ceiling. The dining room in the east wing retains a 17th-century style stone fireplace and panelling, which is said to have been made from wood salvaged from Lord Beatty's flagship.

The hall was formerly the seat of the Villiers family and was the birthplace in 1592 of George Villiers, who became Duke of Buckingham. It was purchased in 1711 by Sir Nathan Wright. During much of the 19th century it was rented as a hunting box, with tenants including the 7th Earl of Cardigan. In 1911 it was sold to Rear Admiral Beatty, later created Baron Beatty of the North Sea and Brooksby. Leicestershire and Rutland County Councils purchased the property in 1945 for use as an agricultural college.