Welcome to 1620s House & Garden

The 1620s House & Garden

Experience our wonderful fully furnished early 17th century house in its grounds. Take a walk back in time and immerse yourself in the lives of a family living in the shadow of the Gunpowder Plot.

Visiting the 1620s House & Garden

The 1620s House

  • General public opening hours 10.30am to 4.30pm

The 1620s House and Garden at Donington le Heath, formerly Donington le Heath Manor House, is a rare 13th century building, fully furnished in early 17th century style, to tell the story of its former owners and residents.

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17th-century style gardens

The gardens are laid out in early 17th century style with a wide range of carefully researched and fully labelled trees and plants. The labels are stuffed full of fascinating and entertaining information, perfect for garden enthusiasts, group visits, home schooling and inspiring learning for all ages.

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The Old Barn Tearoom

  • General public open hours 11.00am to 4.00pm

Pop into our old barn tea room for drinks, homemade cakes and soup and pick up a gift or souvenir from the gift shop.

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Get involved

There are several opportunities to get involved at the 1620s site.

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Group visits and private guided tours

Whether you are in a gardening or history focused group, or just enjoy seeing new places with your friends, a tour of the House and Garden is a lovely way to spend time together.

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Our community

Find out how we work closely with our community.

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What's on at the 1620s House & Garden

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The whole family had a lovely afternoon here. The (volunteer) guide took us around the house and really brought it to life. Beautiful gardens. Atmospheric coffee shop selling delicious homemade cake. Clean toilets. Easy parking. Well worth a visit.

A great day out. Today was their uplift day featuring a medieval village & knights!
Also a cute snail. It is great 1620s manor house with well-kept gardens with a maze and a barn tearoom that sales lovely Lavendar Cake. They have helpful guides and lots of loos. You can barrow a sensory bag for those with SEND to enjoy as they explore the house and grounds. Buy 1 entry ticket and you now have a season ticket for a whole 12 months to enjoy returning again and again!

A fab place to visit. The volunteers all share an understandable passion for the place and are really helpful and friendly. The house is interesting, the gardens are gorgeous and the tearoom is a delight. So many home-made cakes, so little time!

Beautiful gardens and fantastic cakes available.

What an amazing place. Thank you to Karen a volunteer guide who gave my daughter and i a tour around the house. The volunteer gardeners were so knowledgeable about the plants in the well-kept gardens and very friendly. Thankyou everyone for making our visit so lovely.

What an amazing place! Karen our guide was fantastic. Her knowledge of the history was excellent and we absolutely loved the tour. Gardens are amazing too and another volunteer chatted to us about some of the plants. Thoroughly recommend visiting!

Lovely visit to this wonderful Medieval house, looked after by Leicestershire County Council. Our guide was Rob- we all had a great laugh and learned lots.

We really enjoyed it here. It was so fascinating. You were able to get close to the artefacts. You really feel like you are stepping back in time. The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable. The herb garden was a real treat, and the gentleman that I spoke to was so interesting. The cake was 10 out of 10. Thank you for a lovely afternoon to everyone at 1620s House.

A fabulous treasure – a must visit!

Beautiful house, friendly enthusiastic staff. Nothing was too much trouble. From the welcoming member of staff on the entrance ‘hut’ (wearing the Easter bunny ears!) who told us how to make the best of our visit, we then had a fabulous tour of the house with very knowledgeable Gail who answered all of our questions and really brought the house to life. Finished off with delicious lime cake and lavender cake from the tea shop and a tour of the gorgeous spring gardens – and a chat with gardeners Michael and his wife who have them looking magnificent (and gave us lots of ideas for our own garden!). It really is a little treasure, beautifully presented and run by a team so obviously loving what they are doing. Thank you all – we’ll be back! x

Absolute gem!

Absolutely wonderful place and well worth a visit. The gardens are lovely and the guided tour of the house is interesting and informative. The volunteers are really lovely and make this a special place. There’s a small admission charge, but your ticket lasts for a year. Coffee shop is very good, there’s plenty of seating inside and out, plus the cake is fantastic!

Beautiful, serene hidden gem

Such friendly and welcoming staff with great knowledge and expertise. Very pleasantly surprised by a peaceful, beautifully presented garden and location. Such a feeling of calm and staff are clearly passionate. Expertise and information were interesting and enlightening and a pleasure to visit.

Delightful House and Garden in Leicestershire

Enjoyed a guided tour of this beautifully restored house and garden today. The guides were excellent and very informative. The whole visit was a delight including the tasty cakes in the café. A must visit in a lovely setting.

Great place, great cafe, great staff

Visited with my Mom. The enthusiasm of the staff and volunteers was evident from the lady that sold us tickets to our very knowledgeable guide, Gail, and the helpful staff in the cafe (wow great cakes). Very interesting house incredibly well-labelled gardens and lovely cafe for light lunch or coffee and cake. Great visit made all the better by the staff and volunteers. 10/10 We will be back.

Great venue to visit offering good disabled access and facilities

We visited the 1620s House for the first time on the VE anniversary weekend event. It was such a lovely day and I was especially pleased at how accessible the venue was. There was ample disabled parking and although there wasn’t access to the first floor of the house for wheelchair users there was the option of using the iPad that the volunteers had which had a video recording of the upper floor to view.
The gardens were beautiful and we really enjoyed the food in the tearoom too.
We shall definitely visit the 1620s house again.