Bradgate Park and Groby Old Hall

Note: This is a show notes page accompanying my on-location podcast, recorded in the winter of 2024.

An Introduction Bradgate Park and Groby Old Hall

Bradgate Park, located in Leicestershire, England, is a historic park known for its natural beauty and rich history. Spanning over 800 acres, it features rugged landscapes, ancient oak trees and roaming deer. The land was part of the Manor of Groby and came under the ownership of the Ferrers family in the thirteenth century. It later passed to the Grey family, and Bradgate Park was the childhood home of Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days’ Queen” of England in 1553. The ruins of Bradgate House, one of England’s earliest unfortified brick-built houses still stand within the park.

The Grey family continued to own the estate for centuries, but Bradgate House fell into ruin after the estate was sold in the 1920s. The parkland was eventually preserved and opened to the public in 1928 by Charles Bennion, a local businessman who gifted it to Leicestershire residents. Today, Bradgate Park is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to its ancient woodland, geology, and biodiversity.

In this episode, Peter Liddle, an archaeologist, shows me around two sites: Bradgate Park and nearby Groby Old Hall, a historic manor house located in Groby, a village in Leicestershire. The site of Groby Old Hall dates back to at least the twelfth century. The Ferrers family, powerful Norman landowners, were the original holders of the manor. Remnants of a medieval stone structure, including a fortified tower, are still visible today.

The estate passed to the Grey family through marriage in the fifteenth century. Thomas Grey, the 1st Marquess of Dorset, significantly remodelled the Hall at Groby, blending medieval and Tudor architectural styles. The oldest surviving parts include the stone tower and sections of the medieval manor. To find out more about the Ferrers and the Grey families and their two principal manor houses, both lying close to Leicester, tune in to the podcast.

You can listen to the podcast episode here. Below is a gallery of accompanying images, taken during my on-location visit. A huge thanks to our two contributors: Peter Liddle, Archaeologist, and Director of Bradgate Park, James Dymond.

Groby Old Hall & Bradgate Park Image Gallery

Useful Links

Visiting information for Bradgate Park is here.

You can find out more about the archaeological work at Groby Old Hall here.

If you would like to visit other Tudor locations nearby, the city of Leicester is just 8 miles away. Last year, I recorded a three-part podcast series in Leicester, focusing on some of the places associated with King Richard III. The show notes page is here, and the links to the podcast episodes are:
Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3.

Links to the associated sites of interest, about 8 miles from Bradgate are below:
Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre
King Richard iii Visitor Centre
Leicester Cathedral

Belvoir Castle and Ashby de la Zouch Castle are also in the county of Leicestershire.

Further afield, the following places might be of interest:

Rockingham Castle (35 miles)
Burghley House (43 miles)