House Guide

Originally built in around 1290, this is one of the oldest houses in Leicestershire, with a long history as a family home.

The Digby family owned the house from the 15th century onwards and it changed hands within the family many times.

In 1618 the Digbys embarked on the modernisation of the house, possibly as part of Anne Digby’s wedding settlement for her marriage to Thomas Swinglehurst. This modernisation left the outside of the house looking much as it does today.

They added new fashionable mullioned windows to the great chamber and the kitchen/parlour, making them lighter and brighter and a new roof was also built. Two years later, in 1620 the Swinglehursts moved and sold the house back to the Digby Family, probably to James Digby, who had owned it in 1614.

The 1620s saw further changes at Donington and by 1627 the house had passed to the ownership of the Dilke family.

Today you can see what the house and garden may have looked like when the Digby family lived here in the nine years after its modernisation.

We have recreated the rooms as the family and their servants, guests and a host of local tradespeople would have known them.

While you are here feel free to touch and hold things and sit on the chairs and benches. 

The house and garden will continue to change and develop and we hope that your first visit here won’t be your last