Ledston Hall Gardens

Ledston Hall is significant as a fine example of an English Country House estate with a long history. The Hall (listed Grade I) is the product of successive rebuilding and contains part of the undercroft of a 13^th-century chapel.  It was modified by Lady Betty Hastings when she inherited it in 1714. The park has 17^th-century origins and the walled gardens and terraces are probably of a late 17^th-century date, with the area now called The Grove originally designed by Charles Bridgeman for Lady Betty Hastings c. 1731. (The payments to Bridgeman by Lady Betty are in C. Hoare and Co., Bankers, London, Ledger K, 27 March 1731).

The West Gardens (‘Fore Garden’) are shown on one of John Settrington’s series of paintings in 1728.  The estate descended to the Wheler family. Ownership since the death of Mr Granville Wheler has passed to the Wheler Foundation, which has repaired/conserved the Hall, the gardens and pleasure grounds. The gardens, designed landscape and park are designated at Grade II* on the Historic England Register of Historic Parks and Gardens in England.

Photographs of Ledston Hall and south view over the gardens courtesy of Dick Knight

An illustrated account of this visit will be available here shortly