Minster Lovell Hall is a free to visit English Heritage site in Oxfordshire. This fortified manor house is now a picturesque ruin and, when we visited in 2012, was flooded.
Visiting Minster Lovell Hall
As a free to visit site, Minster Lovell Hall has no facilities and parking is only available at the nearby church. When we visited there were no signs directing you at all and the roads in the area are very small and narrow.
My Experience
This visit to Minster Lovell Hall was in 2012 and we weren’t even sure we’d be able to get there due to the flooding. That was a bit of a git to find as the signs had been taken and when we got there the river next to the ruins had burst it’s bank. The ruins are quite extensive but it was difficult to walk around much due to the water, another place on the list for a revisit!
There is an interesting story about the hall on discoveroxfordshire.com:
“The fate of Francis, the ninth and last Baron Lovell, added great mystery when a skeleton was discovered in the basement of Minster Lovell Hall in 1718 sitting upright at a table, surrounded by books, paper and pens. Some think the body might belong to the ninth Lord Lovell. Francis, who sided with the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses, the disputes between the houses of York and Lancaster, was declared guilty of treason after the Battle of Bosworth. According to a local legend, he fled back to his estate and hid in a secret chamber. The chamber’s existence was known only to an old and trusted servant, who brought his lord food and drink. When the servant died suddenly, Lord Lovell’s hiding place became a tomb and Francis slowly starved to death.
It is said that the moans of Lord Lovell can be heard amidst the ruins to this day.”
Minster Lovell Hall Photo Gallery
History
Minster Lovell Hall was built by William Lovell around 1440. As Minster Lovell was one of the earliest estates held by the Lovell family and one of their main residences it was at least the second building occupying this site.
The Hall was a fairly typical if impressive manor house. The buildings surround three sides of a square; the fourth side towards the River Windrush was closed off by a wall. The great tower at the south-west corner seems to be a later addition to the house, as part of the adjoining west wing had to be rebuilt.
Minster Lovell Hall remained the main residence of the Lovell family. Richard III visited it as a guest of Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, grandson of William Lovell. Francis Lovell’s estates were declared forfeit after the Battle of Bosworth and Minster Lovell was granted to Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII.
The property changed hands several times over the next two centuries. Among the owners were Henry VIII’s gentlemen of the stool, William Compton and Henry Norris.
The property was bought in 1603 by Sir Edward Coke. The manor remained in the Coke family for several generations, and Thomas Coke, created Baron Lovel in 1728, abandoned Minster Lovell Hall in 1747. Large parts of the buildings were dismantled. By the early nineteenth century the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall were thought to have been the buildings of an alien priory.
References
The English Heritage site, with full visitor information, is here.
The history above is copied from the Wiki site here.