Kilworth House was built in 1880 as a private residence and it has all the confident Italianate manner of its moment — tall windows, generous proportions, a house designed to be arrived at. It is Grade II listed, it sits in 38 acres of parkland in the quiet countryside near North Kilworth, and it was rescued and restored with an enthusiasm bordering on the theatrical. That is not merely a figure of speech: the same restoration gave the estate its Theatre in the Woods, an open-air auditorium in the grounds that stages full musicals through the summer, which is not something most country house hotels can offer as a backdrop.
Inside, the Victorian Orangery is the room everyone remembers, all light and glass and greenery, and it is licensed for ceremonies of up to 120. There are smaller licensed rooms as well, the Shakespeare for 20 and the Wordsworth for 40, so a genuinely intimate wedding is possible here without hiring a great hall and trying to fill it. Vows are exchanged indoors rather than outside, which in an English summer is arguably a feature rather than a restriction. The Wordsworth Restaurant handles the serious dining, and the kitchen keeps everything in-house.
What makes it unusual is that everybody can stay. There are 44 bedrooms across garden rooms, four-poster suites and luxury rooms, sleeping up to 88 guests, so a wedding here can be a whole weekend rather than a day with a taxi rank at the end of it. Exclusive use is available, running from mid-afternoon through to the following morning, and it brings the Cellar Bar into play for the part of the night that refuses to end.
Where the band plays
Country house hotels can be awkward for live music, and Kilworth is better set up than most. The rooms are large and well proportioned, there is a dancefloor, and the house is genuinely happy to have bands in — on an exclusive-use booking there are no noise restrictions placed on live music at all, which is rarer than couples tend to imagine and worth a great deal. If you are thinking about a larger line-up, ask which room the dancing will be in for your numbers, and about the route from the car park to the door, because a Victorian house and a van full of gear need a little choreography.
The shape of the evening
The day tends to move from an Orangery ceremony out into the parkland for drinks, then to dinner and dancing, with receptions running through to midnight. That gives a band room to do the job properly — a first set that gets people up, a break while the bar does its work, a second that finishes with the floor full — and for anyone not ready to stop, the Cellar Bar carries the night on afterwards. Since everyone is sleeping upstairs, nobody is watching the clock for a taxi, which does wonders for the last half-hour.
Bands available in Leicestershire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Leicestershire.
- Leicestershire Wedding Bands
- Leicestershire Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Leicestershire
- Leicestershire Wedding DJs
- Leicestershire Corporate Entertainment
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.