Skeffington Hall
house in Skeffington, Harborough, England, UK

Skeffington Hall is a 15th-century Manor House which stands in parkland off the main street of the village of Skeffington, Leicestershire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building and is privately owned.
The house was originally constructed in about 1450 and extended c1530 and again in the early or mid 17th century. It is built to an H-shaped plan in two storeys of coursed ironstone rubble with white limestone ashlar dressings and Swithland slate roofs. The main frontage, dating from the 17th century, has eight bays with a central projecting porch. A castellated parapet runs between projecting gables at each end.
In the 16th century the house was the birthplace of Thomas Skevington, Bishop of Bangor and Sir William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland. It was later owned by William Farrell, whose son Sir William Farrell-Skeffington, 1st Baronet, an officer in the British Army, adopted the Skeffington surname and sold the Hall to the Tailby family just before his death in 1815.
William Ward Tailby (1825-1914) was an avid huntsman and established his own pack of foxhounds at the hall in 1856 which became the Fernie Hunt. He was succeeded in turn by his nephew, T.M.J. Tailby (1862–1916) and George William A. Tailby (born 1893).
The public source identifies “Skeffington Hall” as house in Skeffington, Harborough, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Skeffington, Hall and house.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Skeffington Hall”, the useful work is to connect “house in Skeffington, Harborough, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17539719. Authority coordinates are 52.617, -0.906. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1450, 1815, 1825 and 1914.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Skeffington Hall”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Skeffington Hall primary sources, Skeffington Hall archive and Skeffington research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Skeffington Hall”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Skeffington Hall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.