Lowesby Hall, Leicester, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Formal gardens, including elements by Sir Edwin Lutyens, and a landscape park associated with a country house.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Lowesby Hall and its service buildings stand west of the medieval church of All Saints and the adjoining hamlet of Lowesby 13 kilometres east of Leicester, about 1 kilometre west of the B6047 from Market Harborough to Melton Mowbray. Hall and park lie on the north-east side of a stream valley, the watercourse, the Wreke, forming the south-western boundary of the park. The B6047 Melton Road bounds the site to the north-east, and its junction with Park Road, which turns off it to the south-west, defines the northern corner of the park. The south-east boundary of the park follows field edges, and runs through the earthworks of the medieval village of Lowesby (scheduled ancient monument), larger and more populous than the present settlement. The area here registered is roughly 50 hectares.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J Nichols, History and Antiquities of Leicester 3, part i (1800), pp 339-40 (4 volumes, in 8 parts, 1795-1811, reprinted 1971)

Gardeners' Magazine 7, (1831), pp 428-30

Country Life, 18 (9 September 1905), pp 342-8; 37 (8 May 1915), pp 626-33; 39 (22 January 1916), p 105

C Hussey, The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens (1953)

M Binney and A Hills, Elysian Gardens (1979), p 20

N Pevsner, E Williamson and G K Brandwood, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland (1984), pp 296-7

Maps

Map of Lowesby, 1815 (Leicestershire Record Office: 41/88)

Map of Lowesby, 1821 (5047/14), (Leicestershire Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: Leicestershire sheet 32 NE, 1st edition 1891; 2nd edition 1904; 1950 edition

Archival items

Early 19th-century engravings of Lowesby (private collection)
 

Description written: November 1998

Edited: July 1999