What to See in Corby - Top Sights and Attractions

Elizabethan stately home with gardens. Kirby Hall is an Elizabethan country house, located near Gretton, Northamptonshire, England. The nearest main town is Corby. One of the great Elizabethan houses of England, Kirby Hall was built for Sir Humphrey Stafford of Blatherwick, beginning in 1570. In 1575 the property was purchased by Sir Christopher Hatton of Holdenby, Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I. It is a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Construction on the building began in 1570, based on the designs in French architectural pattern books and expanded in the Classical style over the course of the following decades. The house is now in a semi-ruined state with many parts roof-less although the Great Hall and state rooms remain intact. The gardens, with their elaborate "cutwork" design, complete with statues and urns, have been recently restored.

Anne of Denmark stayed at Kirby on 9 August 1605 while King James stayed at Rockingham Castle. King James stayed for three days in August 1616. During a royal progress Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox died at Kirby of the "spotted ague" on 30 July 1624.

The building and gardens are owned by the Earl of Winchilsea and are managed by English Heritage.

Kirby Hall has been used as a filming location in many productions. These include the following; an episode (6. Protest and Communication) of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, and Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and A Christmas Carol for Ealing Studios in 1999, and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story in 2005. In 2014 it was the venue for an edition of BBC One's Antiques Roadshow.^[1]

Historical landmark in Deene, England. Deene Park, the seat of the Brudenell family since 1514, is a country manor located 5 miles northeast of Corby in the county of Northamptonshire, England. The hall itself is a Grade I listed building dating back to the 14th century which has been modified several times since then to create the current structure.

Seven of the Brudenell family were Earls of Cardigan – the most notable being the 7th Earl who led the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava (1854). The 7th Earl died childless in 1868, and while the Earldom of Cardigan merged with the Marquessate of Ailesbury, the Deene Park estate passed, after the death in 1915 of his widow, to the descendants of his second cousin Ernest Brudenell-Bruce, 3rd Marquess of Ailesbury.

The estate was inherited by its current owner, Robert Brudenell, in 2014; he is the son of Edmund and Marian Brudenell, who devoted their lives to the rehabilitation of Deene Park and are largely responsible for the estate's present appearance. They are descended from the 3rd Marquess's son Commodore Lord Robert Brudenell-Bruce RN. Lord Robert's son George, Edmund's father, inherited the family seat along with the family's remaining estates in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, and reverted the family name back to "Brudenell" by Royal Licence.^[2]