Risley Hall
| Risley Hall | |
| Derbyshire | |
|---|---|
 Risley hall | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK46013558 |
| Location: | 52°54’57"N, 1°19’6"W |
| Village: | Risley |
| History | |
| Built 16th century | |
| For: | the Willoughby family |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Converted to a hotel |
| Owned by: | Crosbie family |
Risley Hall is a country house, now a hotel set in 17 acres of private landscaped grounds in the countryside of south-eastern Derbyshire, near the village of Risley (and more prosaically, close to Junction 25 of the M1). The hall is a Grade II listed building.[1]
The house was built as the seat of the Willoughby family in the 16th century: today it is a country house hotel with 35 bedrooms and several function rooms. The 16th-century Great Hall, with open-beamed ceilings and mullion windows, remains and hosts weddings. There was once a spa, which closed down in 2016.
History
The manor of Risley goes back at least to the 11th century, as it is recorded in the Domesday Book. The Willoughby family acquired the manor in 1350 and were the main builders of Risley Hall, which dates from the 16th century. In the 16th century the Willoughbys built the Church of All Saints, Risley, and founded a free school in the village.
The estate then passed by marriage to Anchitell Grey but returned to the Willoughby family on the death of his daughter.
The Latin House was built in the early 18th century. The Risley Park Lanx, a Romano-British silver plate, was discovered in the grounds of Risley in 1729. It was recently thought to have been rediscovered and was put on display at the British Museum, until the object in question turned out to be a forgery and was promptly removed.[2]
In Victorian times, the house prospered under the ownership of a flamboyant entrepreneur, Ernest Terah Hooley.[3]
The lodge in the park is no longer part of the reduced estate. It was described by a visitor about 1700:
"The main house is an ancient, large convenient building ... [with] a very fine park a little mile outside the town, in which stands a very handsome lodge, on a considerable eminence, from which there is a noble prospect."[4]
Risley Hall is owned by the Crosbie family and was managed by the Oxford Hotels and Inns group until 2012 when the Bespoke Hotels group took over.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Risley Hall) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1087915: Risley Hall and attached garden wall (Grade II listing)
- ↑ John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870
- ↑ Heritage Britain: Hotels in Risley, Derbyshire
- ↑ Quoted in Nicholas Cooper, Houses of the Gentry, 1480-1680, 1999:111f.