Qualla: Deene Park

Deene Park: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Julian Dowse, CC BY-SA 2.0. Ronald the horse came home. His rider survived too, but the men of the Light Brigade mostly did not, and that uneasy arithmetic still sits at the heart of Deene Park. Behind the honey-coloured walls of this Grade I listed manor, five miles north-east of Corby, are preserved Lord Cardigan's uniforms, the cavalry trumpet, and the head and tail of the chestnut charger who carried him into the Russian guns at Balaclava on 25 October 1854 and out again. The house has been the seat of the Brudenell family since 1514. The cavalry charge that made it famous lasted twenty minutes.

Read more: Deene Park on Qualla

Image: Julian Dowse | CC BY-SA 2.0

Deene Park: Westminster's Rented Manor

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cj1340 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Until 1970, the Brudenells paid eighteen pounds a year in rent to Westminster Abbey for the right to live at Deene. The manor had belonged to the abbey since the Middle Ages, and the family who would produce seven Earls of Cardigan held it as tenants rather than freeholders. The ...

Read more: Deene Park on Qualla

Image: Cj1340 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Deene Park: Theirs Not to Reason Why

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dyvroeth, CC BY-SA 3.0. James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, was vain, quarrelsome and not very bright. None of that was decisive on the day at Balaclava when his Light Brigade rode the wrong direction into a valley flanked by Russian artillery on three sides. Lord Raglan's order, scrawled by an aide ...

Read more: Deene Park on Qualla

Image: Dyvroeth | CC BY-SA 3.0

Deene Park: Hicks Gardens and Quiet Inheritance

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jim 21 (talk), Public domain. The 7th Earl died childless in 1868, and the title eventually merged into the Marquessate of Ailesbury, but Deene itself passed through a second cousin to a different branch of the family. After his widow died in 1915 the estate descended to Brudenell-Bruces who later reverted to...

Read more: Deene Park on Qualla

Image: Jim 21 (talk) | Public domain

Deene Park: Greenbelt in the Park

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Humphrey, CC BY-SA 2.0. Throughout the 1990s, the long lawns of Deene hosted something rather unexpected for a Brudenell estate: the Greenbelt Festival, an annual gathering of Christian musicians, theologians and several thousand campers, held over the August bank holiday weekend. It became a fixture of...

Read more: Deene Park on Qualla

Image: Richard Humphrey | CC BY-SA 2.0