Ferrers Centre

The Ferrers Centre is an outstanding centre for arts and crafts situated just 100 yards from Lion Court. It contains shops and workshops focused on traditional crafts as well as an excellent art gallery. It is the ideal way to break up your intense meeting - why not visit the traditional tea rooms for tea and cakes? 

History

This splendid courtyard building of brick and slate was built as stabling for the fifth Earl Ferrers between 1760 and 1780. Besides accommodation for about forty horses there were two granaries, a large dovecote, carriage houses, a blacksmith's shop, and living quarters for single men.

The Blunt family (who own Lion Court) bought these stables in 1955, empty and dilapidated, 'thrown in' with the adjacent farm as having no value. There were big holes in the roof and grass grew waist high in the courtyard. They repaired the structure and cleared the rubbish, but it took twenty years to find a viable use for it. In 1974 the first potter moved in and the centre has developed steadily since then. These are workshops, where things are made and repaired; they have not allowed the complex to drift down the retail route, and in this way it remains unique. There is much to see here in what is believed to be the largest concentration of craftspeople in Britain.

Website

Find out more at: www.ferrerscentre.co.uk