Photo: Lamport Hall by Ian Rob, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
About this place
Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire has been in the hands of the Isham family for over four centuries, making it one of the county's most sustained examples of gentry occupation.
The house was built in stages from the mid-seventeenth century, with the earliest section designed by John Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones.
It sits in rolling farmland north of Northampton and remains a privately managed historic house open to the public.
The hall is also credited as the place where garden gnomes were first introduced to Britain, brought back from Germany by Sir Charles Isham.
Sources differ on exactly when this happened, placing it somewhere in the mid-nineteenth century.
Plan your visit
Open to the public from Easter to October, with the Hall open on selected weekdays by guided tour; check the official website for current dates and times.