Ingatestone Hall, in Essex, is a Tudor house built in the 1540s that the Petre family still owns and lives in, and which has been hired out since 1992 for conferences, seminars, receptions, weddings and exhibitions. Five principal rooms and four garden areas can be used alone or together. Formats range from a seminar for 30 to a conference for 60 and a day for 85 delegates, while weddings run from 20 to 200 guests.
Seminars and company events
The conferences page positions the hall as a calmer alternative to a conventional conference centre, for corporate away days, seminars, client presentations and committee meetings. Three sample formats are given. A three-hour seminar or meeting for 30 uses the Summer Parlour. An all-day conference for 60 uses the Summer Parlour and the Stone Hall, with four break-out rooms. A full day for 85 delegates or guests uses the downstairs of the house and the front grounds.
Six smaller rooms are available for break-out sessions or displays on top of the principal rooms. Parking is in the Meadow Car Park, with access by the Main Drive. The hall issues a bespoke quotation for each layout and invites organisers to a free tour. The premises are licensed for live music and alcohol, and trade promotions, lectures and exhibitions are also hosted.
Weddings and receptions
The hall has a civil ceremony licence, so it can host weddings and civil partnerships, for celebrations of twenty to two hundred guests. It has no wedding planner, so couples shape the day themselves, with the events coordinator guiding the process. For a church wedding, several country churches stand nearby: Fryerning, Mountnessing, Buttsbury and Margaretting.
Rooms and capacities
Five principal rooms inside the house, including the Summer Parlour and the Stone Hall, plus four areas in the gardens and grounds. Six smaller rooms serve for break-outs. Exhibitions and fairs have drawn up to 1,500 visitors a day, using the grounds. The site refers to a plans and spaces page for room sizes, which was not available.
Accommodation
The pages provided do not mention accommodation. The hall remains primarily a private family residence.
Catering
Extra catering must come from one of the hall's approved Recommended Suppliers. Marquee contractors and entertainers can be freely chosen, and a list of suggestions is available.
History and setting
Sir William Petre built the house about twenty-five years before 1566, and fifteen generations of the family have owned it since. It keeps its Tudor form, with mullioned windows, high chimneys, crow-step gables and oak-panelled rooms, set in ten acres of enclosed gardens with lawns, a walled garden and a stew pond. It has been used as a location for television dramas including Lovejoy and Bleak House.
Getting there
The address is Ingatestone Hall, Hall Lane, Ingatestone, Essex CM4 9NR. The hall stands in open countryside, one mile from the village of Ingatestone.
