15 January 2025

Remains of Burleigh House @ Loughborough University

The 17th century walled garden at Loughborough University.

Loughborough University has shot up the rankings of late, but how many of its students know that it's built on the site of a Royalist garrison? ...

Firstly, I'm shocked to find it was as long ago as 2016 when I had a tour around the university and took these photos - thanks again to Jonathan who guided me that day!

I haven't been able to spend anywhere near as long as I'd like investigating the university campus's civil war history, but thought it useful to finally publish the pics below, which might be of use to someone else interested in picking up the research baton. This article is therefore somewhat truncated, but I hope also of interest to the general ECW enthusiast.

I'd read about remains of an older building on the modern Loughborough campus, and passing by I'd always assumed the gates (below) out on Derby Road that lead into the eastern section of the campus were part of an ancient estate. I was wrong. They were built as recently as 1934 as the original entrance to the university's playing fields site, by the unfortunately named William Bastard, the Chairman of College Governors.

The Bastard Gates.

The next clue pricks up the ears of any English Civil War buff. The Hazlerigg building (below) is viewable from the main entrance and was one of the first built on the campus, costing £42,000 when it opened on June 15 1938. As accommodation it originally housed 80 students but is now used as an administrative centre. Sir Arthur Hesilrig (the family name is spelled variously in the archives) was one of the five members who attempted to arrest Charles I in 1642, and played a prominent role throughout the war as a Parliamentarian commander in the field.


The Haslerigg building.

The family connection is indeed correct, though is something of a red herring. The building is named after Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, the Lord Lieutenant of the County at the time, who also held the 13th baronetcy of Noseley, though the family has no apparent connection with the remains of the older estate elsewhere on the campus.

You have to walk much further up on to the campus to find any older architectural remains. Near to the careers centre off Margaret Keay Road is a 17th century walled garden (see Google map, below), one of the few surviving remnants of Burleigh Hall, a manor house that appears to have had a series of antecedents before being demolished to make way for Loughborough University in the late-1950s. 


 

The walled garden.

Burleigh House was situated on a high piece of ground with a good view of Loughborough town centre to the east, and was garrisoned by the Royalists during the Battle of Cotes Bridge (1644), reputedly by Prince Rupert and a force of 3000, who fortified the house (the 'battle', in reality more of a skirmish,  resulted in a minor Royalist victory).

The only surviving building is now used as a gardener's cottage (reputedly the oldest complete building in Loughborough). Its Historic England listing entry reads:

'House; C16/C17, left-hand parts timber-framed with brick nogging on stone plinth, right-hand part rubble stone. Concrete pantile roofs. Double-L plan. External stone stack, heightened in brick at right-hand end. Brick bread oven roofed in Swithland slates. Mixed fenestration. Dormer. Plank door.'


The C16/17 gardener's cottage.


The C16/17 gardener's cottage.


A further section of wall.

There is also a 18th century pedimented summer house, which is Grade II listed (as are the walls).

Burleigh House appears to have been redeveloped in the 17th and 18th centuries. Surviving images of its final iteration before demolition in the mid-20th century are below.



The university building that recently occupied the site of the Hall itself was the Sir Arnold Hall building, which I believe was demolished in 2023. The photo below the Arnold Hall building and demonstrates the elevated ground on which Burleigh Hall would have been situated, and which would have offered a strong vantage point of the town in the 1640s.




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