Belgrave Hall and Gardens Houses

Today, Belgrave Hall and Gardens provide an oasis of peace and quiet in a busy suburb of Leicester. Edmund Cradock, a 'nouveau riche' hosiery merchant, built the Hall between 1709 and 1713 and died soon after its completion. Little is known of the next owners, the Simons. The Vann's who lived there from 1767 to 1844, ran a thriving hosiery business from the Hall, employing the local framework knitters as outworkers. They gave generously to many local charities, including Leicester's first free school. John Ellis and his family, who purchased Belgrave Hall in 1845 and his family were also noted for their good work in the community. Ellis, a wealthy businessman, was responsible for bringing the railways to Leicester in 1833.

Belgrave Hall's gardens provide a rare opportunity to walk through formal, herbaceous and woodland gardens designed in the 1850's. The gardens first took shape in 1709 at about the same time as the house and were used to impress guests who visited the Hall. Many original features from the Victorian garden are still retained including the walled gardens and a number of statues and monuments from lost gardens in Leicestershire.

When two mysterious, luminous figures were caught on the security cameras at Belgrave Hall it became the ghost capital of the world. National and international media attention, from all four corners of the globe, focused on the Hall and the mysterious shapes which were filmed just before Christmas 1998. .