Rushton Hall has one of the better stories in Northamptonshire. The Tresham family bought it in 1438, William Tresham having survived Agincourt, and stayed for a century and a half — time enough for Sir Thomas to build the extraordinary Triangular Lodge in the grounds and for his son Francis to get himself entangled in the Gunpowder Plot and die in the Tower. Charles Dickens visited in the 19th century, and the lady of the house at the time is often said to have given him Miss Havisham. The hall was listed Grade I in 1951, spent nearly half a century as a school for blind children, and was restored as a hotel in the early 2000s.
What all that leaves you with is a magnificent 16th-century facade, a lake, ancient trees, formal gardens laid out by Thomas Mawson at the start of the last century, and interiors genuinely worth the walk around: a library, a drawing room, a grand staircase and a south-facing terrace. There are 51 bedrooms sleeping 106, a spa in the old stableyard, a pool, a gym and a snooker room, and the hotel takes just one wedding a day — the single most useful thing a house of this size can promise you.
The Orangery is the modern showpiece, with crystal chandeliers, floor-to-ceiling windows, original stone floors and intricate ceilings, and it handles anything from 80 to 280 guests. Three rooms are licensed for civil ceremonies — the Picture Gallery, the State Room and the Ballroom — covering between them 60 to 250. Drinks happen in the main courtyard. Catering is in-house only, which at Rushton is no hardship whatsoever.
Where the band plays
The Picture Gallery is where the evening ends up, and it comes with something most venues simply cannot offer: a minstrels’ gallery, built for musicians several hundred years ago and still doing the job. It is a handsome, high, hard-surfaced room, so a band sounds big in it without having to work for it. Live music and discos are both welcome and no noise limiter is imposed on live bands, which is a rarity in a house of this age and grandeur — always worth confirming with the events team, but a promising starting point.
How the evening runs
Guests move from the courtyard to the Orangery to the Picture Gallery over the course of the day, so the party never feels as though it is being reassembled inside the same four walls. Evenings run to midnight as standard, and if you have taken the house exclusively that can stretch to 1am, which buys a band an extra set and everybody else an extra hour. With most of the wedding sleeping upstairs, the dance floor tends to hold its crowd right to the very end.
Bands available in Northamptonshire and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Northamptonshire.
- Wedding Bands in Northamptonshire
- Events Bands in Northamptonshire
- Northamptonshire Tribute Acts
- Northamptonshire Wedding DJs
- Northamptonshire Corporate Entertainment
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.