Donington le Heath Manor House Museum
Donington le Heath Manor House Museum is a surviving example of a manor house built around seven hundred years ago in Donington le Heath, near the town of Coalville, Leicestershire. It was once owned by a relative of one of the Gunpowder plotters, and is now managed by Leicestershire County Council.
Coordinates: 52°42′36.22″N 1°22′46.75″W / 52.7100611°N 1.3796528°W
The museum is based in a medieval manor house, believed to date back to 1280. From the style of the architecture of the parts of the building and from tree-ring dating of some of the timbers still present, the present house at Donington was probably built between 1288 and 1295.
Some of the features of the house along with tree-ring dating of the timbers in the roof show that the Manor House was heavily modernised around 1618. It appears that at this time, the downstairs storerooms were converted into a kitchen and a parlour. A new roof was put on and the rooms upstairs were remodelled with a new internal staircase. Externally, the most obvious addition from this period are the large rectangular mullioned windows. At this time, the house was probably owned by John Digby, whose elder brother, Everard Digby was a close friend of Guy Fawkes and was executed in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.
From 1670 to 1960, the house was rented out as a tenant farm and Leicestershire County Council bought the Manor House in 1965 to preserve the building for future generations. The Manor House was opened as a museum in 1973.
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