Strelley Hall was first built in circa 1200 by the de Strelley family, however it was originally built as a Castle, with huge, thick stone walls that surrounded it and the outbuildings. A knight called 'Walter' had the lands of Strelley gifted to him by William Peveral, a close loyal friend of William the Conqueror, and from there he took on the name 'de Strelley'. Following Sir Walter de Strelley were twelve generations of de Strelleys, all of whom were knighted by the King.

 

Pevsner says there was a medieval tower that once stood near the south corner of modern-day Strelley Hall, and this turret is now where the Castle Room is located, with a smaller room above it and an even smaller uninhabited room above that. Below the Hall lies the original Medieval Cellars, with a tunnel that extends into the darkness, and right at the end of this tunnel is the Dungeon. The Dungeon was part of another turret and was used to imprison murderers, poachers and thieves from the 14th Century up until the early 1900s. Some believe that during the 1600s, a group of women were captured and locked down there on the accusation that they were witches who performed witchcraft and black magic, and the story says that they put curses upon the family, before they died of starvation and hypothermia. The building was rebuilt in around 1350 by Sir Sampson de Strelley, the same time the adjacent All Saints Church was reconstructed.

 

​In the 15th Century a timbered Great Hall was built next to the original Manor House, but sometime during the Tudor period, a major fire broke out and the Great Hall completely collapsed, with most of the charred timbers falling into the Moat. The aftermath was so extent, that the Strelley family decided to fill in the Moat, hiding it away from human eyes for roughly 500 years. Not much else is known about the Hall during this time. During an archaeological dig in 2006/7, archaeologists discovered the lost Moat that had been buried underneath the ground for five centuries, layered with waste and charred wood. The Moat had been undiscovered for so long, that the entire Edge family line who owned and lived here at Strelley, didn't know about it.

 

It wasn't just the Strelley family who lived here, so did the Edge family. In 1678, the Strelley family came into financial struggles due to their support for the Royalists in the English Civil War, and were forced to sell up the estate. They sold it to a lawyer called Ralph Edge, whose descendants lived at Strelley Hall for 300 years. This was the official story, however there is a different story that tells another tale: Nicholas Strelley, Lord of the Manor, was a gambler and loved to bet his money on all things competitive, whether that be cards, horse racing or cock fighting. One night in 1678, he invited a group of friends and their friends over to the House for a game of cards. Not having much money left due to his addiction, he bet the deed to the entire property and estate, feeling extremely confident. Nicholas ended up losing the card game to a lawyer called Ralph Edge, who became the new owner. The Strelley family were forced to leave, and it's said that Nicholas walked off into the sunset, never seen again.

 

The Edge family lived at Strelley Hall for 300 years, until 1978 when Emily Mary Edge, the last of the Edge family line, died at the Hall. Her father Thomas Lewis Kekewich Edge was the previous owner, and planned to give the inheritance of the Hall and wealth to his eldest son, ironically called Ralph Edge, but because he married a suffragette his father disinherited him, and instead declared his daughter Emily Mary heiress to Strelley, but on one condition: she would not marry. This was because he didn't want her to lose the Edge name, even though in the past the 'Edge' family line had other relations that weren't Edges, but took on the name. She agreed to the terms despite this, and after her father died in 1931, Emily Mary took charge of the estate for over 40 years, served by several loyal housekeepers, until she passed away peacefully in 1978.

​

Since the early 1980s, Strelley Hall is now owned by the Henshall family, who still live here presently. The current building has lots of period features in each of its rooms, including the Panelled Room, the Morning Room and the Grand Staircase, which are Georgian in design and date back to the 17th and 18th Centuries.

​

​