Quenby Hall was built in 1627. It remains a perfect and unspoiled jewel of a High Jacobean country house – the finest in Leicestershire and one of only a handful of such houses remaining in the UK. Many of the rooms are the same as they were when the architect conceived them with beautiful proportions, intricate plaster ceilings, finely worked panelling and fireplaces. It has the advantage of presenting a spectacular face to the world whilst being of a manageable size.
Quenby’s great claim to international fame is that Stilton cheese was first made here, by the housekeeper. Her daughter lived at the staging inn at Stilton, and sold her mother’s cheeses…the rest is history. The Old Dairy is now available for functions: Stilton on the menu is optional!
It is the home of the de Lisle family whose ancestry in England dates back to the Norman conquest of 1066, and have lived in Leicestershire for over 300 years. Quenby was built by George Ashby, and it only passed out of the Ashby family’s hands at the turn of the twentieth century.
For most of the nineteenth century, as a popular part of the Quorn hunt territory, it had been rented to various keen hunting enthusiasts including the 5th Marquess of Waterford and Viscount Downe and possibly the Empress of Austria: the house was widely famed for its hospitality and many wild post-hunting parties – it was Waterford and his friends who were the origin of a well known phrase when they supposedly ‘painted the town red’ (Melton) after a particularly lively session! A ballad of the time is featured below.
It was bought in 1904 and restored by Lady Henry Grosvenor who made many Edwardian improvements and restored much of the Jacobean interior after it had been georgianised by Shuckburgh Ashby in the mid eighteenth century.
Only twenty years later it was bought by Sir Harold Nutting who lived and hunted happily here for 50 years until his death in 1972. We know that the Queen of Denmark and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester and David Niven stayed here during this era.
The Squire de Lisle then bought Quenby, to replace the family seat at Garendon Hall which was demolished in 1964. Quenby has been extensively restored and now offers the highest level of warmth and comfort whilst remaining faithful to its Jacobean heritage.