Bulletin 104 – February 2015

Hedging our Woods If you have driven in from Ashby Lodge, or walked round the Wilderness Road, you can’t help but have noticed the hedge, partly laid, partly new planted.  The impact is greater than we could have imagined. This hedge would once have served the...

Bulletin 103 – January 2015

How do you feel about solar farms? – you know, those serried ranks of sloping glass panels covering fields here and there beside the motorways.  I ask because we are about to get one, at the southern end of  the estate near Ashby de la Zouch.  It’s the...

Bulletin 102 – December 2014

The National Trust, who own the church here at Staunton, are having new lead put on the tower and the north aisle.  Their access is across our main forecourt and I was shown the document covering procedures and precautions for bringing in scaffolding etcetera. ...

Bulletin 101 – November 2014

…. Lot 10: The Georgian mansion known as Staunton Harold Hall together with seventy four acres of land and the cottage at Melbourne Lodge …. any increase on £12,000? … SOLD, to Thomas Oakley (Luton) Ltd, Demolition Contractors.  That was on 12th...

Bulletin 100 – October 2014

Bulletin 100 – quite a milestone.  When we bought Staunton Harold Hall eleven and a half years ago all the public lawns and paths around the house had been in public use for fifty years.  We needed to mark off part of it to give the family some private area and...

Bulletin 99 – August 2014

Rural Crime  When a farmer shoots a burglar or his bull gores a walker the rural community hits the headlines; for the remainder, countryside matters go largely unreported.  We sometimes feel that the police also think of crime in terms of towns and cities, especially...