Saddington Hall

Saddington Hall, opposite the Manor House, is a large square-planned house of two stories and attics and three distinct building periods. The earliest, dated 1679, is an ironstone and brick wing (now the kitchen) forming the north-east side of the house. The west gable of this wing has a blocked lunette light with stone key-blocks and brick voussoirs; all the other windows have been modernized. A re-cut date stone of 1682 is set in the modern gable of the south-east front, and the lower courses of limestone ashlar on this front are probably of this date. A considerable amount of 19th-century restoration, including a general heightening in brick above the first-floor windows, has taken place on this side, but the jambs of an original blocked door are still visible. The gable-end wall dated 1682 is a patchwork of limestone and cobbles with one blocked square light. A brick pavilion of late-18th-century origin adjoins the gable.

The largest addition made to the house, which may well have resulted in the destruction of the bulk of an earlier hall, was made by Robert and Elizabeth Johnson in 1806 and occupies the southern half of the plan. (fn. 6) This consists of a two-storied range built of brick on an ashlar plinth with stuccoed front and side elevations. The stories are divided by a moulded stone string and plat band, the former linking the segmental-arched recesses that contain the lower windows and central doorway of the main front. The hipped roof is of a flat pitch with wide eaves. The range has internal details of the period and brick vaulted cellars. Between the earlier wing and the 1806 addition, on the north-west side, there is a later-19th-century block of two stories. In the earlier portions of the house there is little of interest left after several modernizations. A lean-to extension on the yard side of the older wing is probably coeval with it. A doorway leading into the lean-to is of the same date and has a bar dripstone with an ogee moulding. The brick outbuildings and stables to the north-east of the hall contain timber roof trusses that may be 17th-century in date. Some of the smaller outbuildings have mud walls. A small field barn, built of brick and stone, between the hall and Fleckney Road, contains re-used timbers including a moulded ceiling beam of the early 17th century.

Saddington Hall was acquired in 1927 as a centre for the Leicester Poor Boys' and Girls' Holiday Homes.  In 1949 it was purchased by a Mr. Paragreen who used it first as a country club and later as a private residence.  The owner in 1961 was Mr. H. Smith.