Nevill Holt
Encyclopedia
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
in the Harborough
Harborough
Harborough is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering , the District is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter of the County....
district of Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated at about 6 miles (10 km) northeast of Market Harborough
Market Harborough
Market Harborough is a market town within the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.It has a population of 20,785 and is the administrative headquarters of Harborough District Council. It sits on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border...
and 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Corby
Corby
Corby Town is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire. Corby Town is 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton. The borough had a population of 53,174 at the 2001 Census; the town on its own accounted for 49,222 of this figure...
and lies close to the borders with Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
and Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
. It lies on the north side of the Welland
River Welland
The River Welland is a river in the east of England, some long. It rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. For much of its length it forms the county boundary between...
valley. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 28.
Nevill Holt Hall is a Grade I listed building, dating back to before 1300. The Cunard
Cunard Baronets
The Cunard Baronetcy, of Bush Hill in Nova Scotia, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1859 for Samuel Cunard, the Canadian-born British shipping magnate...
shipping family owned the estate from 1876 to 1912 and Nancy Cunard
Nancy Cunard
Nancy Clara Cunard was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life to fighting racism and fascism...
(1896–1965), writer, publisher and society hostess, was born here. In 1919 the hall became a preparatory school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
, initially linked with Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
. Run by the Phillips family from 1928, the school was an IAPS boarding school. In 1998 the school closed due to falling rolls.
In 2000, the Hall was bought and restored by Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross
David Ross (businessman)
David Peter John Ross , is an English businessman, co-founder with school friend Charles Dunstone of The Carphone Warehouse. At peak valuation of his business interests, Ross was one of the 100 richest people in the United Kingdom. A profile in The Daily Telegraph put his current net worth at...
who had visited the prep school which a friend of his at Uppingham School had attended. Ross has built a theatre to seat 300 within the 17th century stable courtyard which had formerly housed a science laboratory, indoor swimming pool and classrooms. In the summer, Nevill Holt hosts a festival of opera with rising stars from Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera
Grange Park Opera is a professional opera company whose base is The Grange in Hampshire, England. The company was founded in 1998 by Wasfi Kani OBE and Michael Moody...
.