Catch a glimpse of Victorian life at this ‘conserved as found’ country house.

Brodsworth Hall was built and the pleasure gardens laid out, in the 1860s, as an up-to-date new home for the Thellusson family and their servants. It survived with remarkably few changes until taken on by English Heritage in 1990. The gardens have been restored, and the faded and worn interiors gently conserved, telling the story of the changing fortunes of the people who lived and worked here. Wander the many rooms of the house, roam the gorgeous gardens, stop for tea in the tearoom, and discover the recently restored game larder.

Brodsworth survives as a remarkable ensemble of a mid-Victorian country house, with its contents and gardens, lived in and adapted by the same family over three generations. The hall stands at the heart of the gardens newly laid out around it in the 1860s, and overlooks its historic park and wider estate landscape.

Brodsworth was built in soft local magnesian limestone in the Italianate style much used for both country houses and urban buildings in the preceding decades. It was intended not just for a gentry family and their guests, but also all the servants and activities required to support them.

This is reflected in the simple T-shaped plan of the house, and the relative scale and architectural detail of its two blocks. The two-storey main block has a strongly horizontal emphasis, with large plate-glass windows, banded stonework and restrained classical detailing. The roof is hidden behind a balustrade with urns emphasising the entrance and the two sections of the long south front which house the principal reception rooms.