Beaumanor Hall
Beaumanor Hall is a stately home with a park in the small village of Woodhouse on the edge of the Charnwood Forest, near the town of Loughborough in Leicestershire, England.
The present hall was built in 1842–1848 by architect William Railton and builder George Bridgart of Derby,[undue weight?
– discuss] for the Herrick family, with previous halls dating back to the 14th century,[1][2][3] and is a Grade II* listed building[4] It was used during the Second World War for military intelligence.
[7] In the 13th century ownership passed to the Despenser family, who created a deer park and hunting lodge at what is now Beaumanor.
[8][9] The house was replaced by a new construction in 1595 for Sir William Herrick, a government official under Elizabeth I and later a member of parliament for Leicester.
[9] The hall was constructed using stone from Derbyshire quarries, primarily Duffield and Ashover, with floors of marble from Ashford.
His father was Colonel Montagu Curzon who was named by William Herrick as his heir when his wife Sophia died.
William and Kathleen held frequent house parties at Beaumanor and one of them hosted in 1926 is shown in the photograph.
[20] In 1939 the War Office requisitioned the estate, including Garats Hay, and the vicar moved to a cottage in the village.
These housed aerial riggers, a barracks store, M T Office, transport garage workshop and the instrument mechanics' laboratory.
In February 1942 the first of the newly trained ladies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service arrived at Beaumanor and were billeted in outlying villages and Garats Hay hall.
It is also widely rumoured that this listening post knew details of the Katyn massacre as early as 1941; however, the British government files were not released to the public, as it would implicate surviving perpetrators.
In the mid-1970s the hall was bought by Leicestershire County Council, developing quickly into a busy Conference and Education Centre.
The War Office Y Group had acquired an architect who worked as part of the local staff at Beaumanor, and he was tasked with designing the set rooms and other buildings.
A twenty acre (8.1 ha) field to the north of the hall was chosen as the appropriate site to build the required operational set rooms (huts).
In order to carefully conceal them, the other huts were given wooden exteriors and located in the wooded area to the rear of the hall on its western side.
These huts were lettered A, B, C, D, E and F. The wireless listeners were uniformed women of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), who had been trained on the Isle of Man.
