East Langton Grange

  • Untitled 4

East Langton Grange, on the west side of the village, was largely rebuilt by the owner, Lt.-Col. J. D. Hignett, in a neo-Georgian style in 1934–5. Parts remain from the previous house which belonged to J. W. Logan (d. 1925), M.P. for the Market Harborough division of Leicestershire, who built the present garden wall and large castellated water-tower fronting upon the street.

  • Brief History

    In the spring of 1876 Logan, a railway contractor, came to East Langton in order to supervise the building of the L.N.W.R. lines from Newark through John o'Gaunt to Leicester and through Hallaton to Market Harborough.  The Grange was then a small country house which in 1854 had been the residence of Mrs. Mary Warner and later, for a few years before 1860, of the Earl of Morton (d. 1884), probably as a hunting box. During the sixties Arthur G. Cochrane lived there. Logan made many alterations and stayed there for the rest of his life. Probably in the early nineties, he built the riding school and stables which stand in the middle of the village. At the south end of the riding school he erected, in 1894, the former 'village hall', a brick and rough-cast building with moulded brick 'Tudor' ornament. It was used first, apparently, as a private theatre for his daughters and then as a meeting-place for the village.  The hall remained part of the Grange estate, and during the Second World War Lt.-Col. Hignett converted it into two flats and an estate workshop. In 1898 Logan erected a cottage home for the children of men permanently injured on public works, with preference for the employees of Logan & Hemingway.  The cottage home is now a private house called Dean Cottage. Logan was also a patron of 'country house cricket',  and began the present cricket field on the north side of the village.

  • Walled Kitchen Garden

    The first record that we have found is a sales catalogue dated 1875.  This shows an extensive kitchen garden but no glasshouses.

    The WKG shown on the 1886 OS map was about 0.8 of an acre.  The one shown in the sales catalogue of 1875 would have been at least twice this size.

    It is situated across the road to the east of the Grange itself.  The Western wall of the garden follows the road round to the southern side in a curve and meets the village hall at its Eastern end.  The East and North walls belonged to stables that are now housing.

    The land slopes to the South.

    We were unable to view the inside of the WKG as it is now because it is divided into individual private plots belonging to the owners of the houses that back on to it.

    Outside of the Eastern wall of the WKG showing the steps in the top of the wall as it follows the slope of the lane. It also shows the gate that is currently used and another gate that has been bricked up. The wall of the garden around the house can also be seen on the other side of the lane with the water tower at the end.
    The outside of the Southern wall showing the buttresses added during development work circa 1980’s to provide extra support and a stone plinth that appears as the wall follows the slope of downwards. At the end of the wall is a house and the village hall built in 1898 by Paddy Logan
    A section of the wall showing the English bond brickwork, alternating courses of headers and stretchers, capped with saddleback engineering blue bricks
    This is a copy of the map from the East Langton Grange sales catalogue dated October 1875.
    It shows the extent of the WKG before the new stable block was built in 1886. I love the way that it shows the lay out of the garden and the planting of vegetables and fruit trees. Substantial planting is also shown to the NE of the house and a large greenhouse. After 1886 the WKG included only the bottom left hand quadrant of the original garden shown here and the adjacent triangle of land as far as the road.

    See our full research report on the Walled Kitchen Garden here:
    East Langton Grange, East Langton

    <Back to the Walled Kitchen Gardens Register

  • Photos
    • Untitled 4

  • References

    Wikimedia commons East Langton