Launde Abbey hosts day meetings, residential meetings and group retreats, with a main conference room for up to 80 people in theater style and six smaller rooms for 8 to 30. Groups can stay in 39 en suite bedrooms. The house stands on Launde Road, Launde, in the Leicestershire countryside, and has been a place of prayer and hospitality for more than 900 years.
Seminars and company events
Meeting spaces are booked by the day, and the Abbey assures groups of privacy during their stay. Rooms range from formal to informal, with adjustable seating layouts, and each has audiovisual equipment and a hearing loop. A residential program can combine plenary sessions in the Stables Conference Room with breakouts in the Coach House, the Drawing Room or the Oak Room. Groups may join the daily morning, midday and evening services, and can walk in the gardens and on the estate between sessions. A dedicated bookings team handles enquiries from first-time groups.
Rooms and capacities
The Stables Conference Room takes 80 in theater style or for a standing reception, 50 in cabaret or dining layout, 40 in classroom and 30 around a boardroom table or horseshoe. It divides into two halves, Orchard View and Pond View, each for 30 in theater, 25 in cabaret, 20 in classroom and 15 in boardroom. The Coach House holds 30 in theater and 15 in boardroom. The Drawing Room takes 30 in theater, 20 in boardroom and 12 in classroom. The Oak Room seats 20 in a circle or horseshoe. The Stables Sitting Room and Library Annexe suit up to 8. An outdoor worship area with a fire pit can be booked, and marquees add space in summer.
Accommodation
The 39 bedrooms are single, double and twin, all en suite, split between the Main House and the Stables Block. The Tudor manor house holds 19 of them, including 10 Character Rooms, which are larger and look over the gardens and parkland. Simple Rooms are smaller, with a shower or wet room. Accessible bedrooms with wet rooms and alarm aids are on the ground floor of the Stables Block. The Hermitage, a self-catered house next to the Victorian walled garden, can also be hired.
Catering
The restaurant can be pre-booked for lunch or dinner, and the Dairy Café serves a hot food menu daily from 10 am, with Sunday roasts and afternoon teas.
History and setting
Augustinian canons founded Launde Priory between 1119 and 1125 under Henry I. At the dissolution, Thomas Cromwell bought the priory and its estate in 1540, but was executed that year. His son Gregory built the H-shaped manor house from the priory ruins and is buried in the chapel, once a side chapel of the priory church. In 1957 the last private owner gave the Abbey to the Diocese of Leicester, and it became a retreat house.
Getting there
The Abbey lies in open country on Launde Road, postcode LE7 9XB, east of Leicester. Oakham is the nearest railway station, and East Midlands Airport is the closest airport. Most groups arrive by car or coach.
