Stanford Hall, Rugby, England

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

Gardens and a park, landscaped in the mid-18th century but with traces of the geometric layout of around 1700 surviving, associated with a country house.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Stanford Hall and its park lie immediately north of the village of Stanford-on-Avon, 10 kilometres north-east of Rugby. The Hall lies on low, level ground on the west bank of the River Avon, here the county boundary with Northamptonshire. The river forms the principal boundary down the eastern side of the park, feeding from the 1.5 kilometre long Stanford Reservoir which abuts the north-east corner of the park. East of the Hall the boundary line diverts east of the river, here dammed to form a lake, to follow a minor road into Stanford. Although now only a small hamlet principally south of the church, earthworks north-east of the church (and immediately east of the registered area) show that the village was once far more extensive. Local roads also define the northern and southern limits of the park; otherwise its perimeter follows field edges and streams. The area here registered is about 200 hectares.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

J Nichols, History and Antiquities of Leicester 2, part i (1795), pp 350-4, (4 volumes, in 8 parts, 1795-1811, reprinted 1971)

Country Life, 124 (4 December 1958), p 1284; (18 December 1958), pp 1472-5

C Lines, Stanford Hall: A Family Portrait (no date, around 1970)

H Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (1978), pp 747-51, 763

DNB Missing Persons (1993), pp 526-7

Stanford Hall, guidebook, (no date, around 1998)

Maps

OS 6" to 1 mile: Leicestershire sheet 53 SW, 1st edition published 1890

OS 25" to 1 mile: Leicestershire sheet 53.10, 1st edition published 1886; 2nd edition published 1904

Archival items

Stanford Hall estate papers (Leicestershire Record Office)
 

Description written: June 1998

Amended: May 1999

Edited: July 1999