Kelmarsh Hall is a small masterpiece, and one Northamptonshire couples tend to fall for on the first visit. Built in 1732 to a design by James Gibbs and executed by Francis Smith of Warwick for William Hanbury, it is Palladian architecture at its most composed: warm brick, faultless proportions, wings reaching out on either side. Pevsner thought it a perfect and extremely reticent design done in impeccable taste, and the Grade I listing agrees with him. It stands in working parkland on the Northamptonshire and Leicestershire border, a long way from anything that resembles a hotel.
Its other claim on the imagination is Nancy Lancaster, who leased the hall with her husband Ronald Tree in 1929 and later married its owner, Claude Lancaster. She went on to become one of the most influential decorators of the twentieth century, and these rooms are where a good deal of that instinct was formed: the faded pinks, the unfussy grandeur, the sense of a house lived in rather than staged. Since 1996 the estate has been in the care of the Kelmarsh Trust, and the award-winning gardens, the ornamental lake and the parkland are all part of what you are hiring.
Weddings are exclusive use, and the fine rooms do most of the work. The Saloon, licensed for ceremonies of up to 100, is the blue room with the chandeliers, polished oak floors, eighteenth-century plasterwork and a view across the lake, and it holds a baby grand piano that gets played more often than you might expect. The Great Hall, with its Italian-pink walls and open fire, takes the champagne reception, and the Orangery is a pretty spot for an intimate ceremony of up to 40 with the countryside beyond. Overnight accommodation and a taxi transfer for the couple come with the package, and the location is genuinely easy: 15 minutes from the M1 and M6, an hour from London by train.
Where the band plays
Dancing happens in the Ballroom, which is exactly the room you would hope for — a great chandelier, pier-glass mirrors, good paintings and windows looking out over the parkland. It seats up to 100 for the wedding breakfast and holds 150 in the evening, so the same space carries dinner and then the band without a change of scene. Tall, well-proportioned rooms of this date have a flattering natural reverb, and strings, brass and a vocalist sound rich rather than harsh in them, though a band should bring a scaled-down rig and mind the volume rather than treating it like a function suite. There is a house sound system through the hall for the quieter parts of the day.
If you are going bigger
Numbers beyond 150 move outside to the south lawn, where a marquee or a set of tipis sits close to the hall with the countryside spread out behind. Kelmarsh works with preferred suppliers who already know the site dimensions, which is worth taking advantage of. A marquee is the more forgiving room for a full-sized band with drums and a horn section, and it gives you a freedom on layout and timings that a listed interior cannot. The hall does not publish a fixed music curfew, so settle the finish time with the team early and tell your band, along with where they can park and how far they will be carrying gear across grass.
Bands available in Northamptonshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Northamptonshire.
- Northamptonshire Wedding Bands
- Northamptonshire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Northamptonshire
- Wedding DJs in Northamptonshire
- Corporate Entertainment in Northamptonshire
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.