Keythorpe Hall

A creative zero-waste kitchen — plum kernels dried and crushed for ice cream that tastes of almonds without imports, every cut of meat and trimming repurposed, and any unusable scraps composted to grow new vegetables. Chickens and pigs are fed garden waste, reducing reliance on commercial feed and enhancing flavour.

Nearly 25 acres are tended with biodiversity in mind. Lawns are mown to varied lengths — short for croquet, longer for wildflowers and invertebrates, some areas cut just once a year to create habitats for raptors and birds of prey. Sheep graze the paddocks, supporting both ground management and a local source of meat.

Their supply chain is treated as a Values Chain — every supplier reviewed for quality, ethics, transparency and proximity. Milk from neighbouring fields, art from local makers, vegetables harvested at their peak from the walled garden, supporting the local economy at every link.

An oil boiler was replaced with a biomass system fuelled by local woodchip, with open fires burning only wood from the grounds and new trees and hedgerows constantly planted. Power comes from 100% UK wind via Scottish Power, with LED lighting, insulated roof space and shutters on every window of this Grade II listed home.

Active partnerships with local councils and businesses promote Leicestershire as a destination, while industry collaborations help fill the UK's gap in market gardening and organic-growing education. Plans with local schools will build a sustainability curriculum centred on food cultivation and seasonal awareness.

Throughout the house and walled garden, the team has revived hand-painted wallpapers, bricked-up doorways, derelict glasshouses and lost paths — choosing patient restoration over replacement so the layered history of Keythorpe Hall is carried forward, not erased.