SNN110821 - Lyveden Old Build – an archaeological appraisal of the building and its former built environs

The building, known as The Lyveden Old Build, was almost certainly built, or at least significantly reconfigured, by Lewis Tresham (c1575 -1639) after 1615. The building essentially replaced Rushton Hall, the principal family seat, which was sold after a period of financial and social diminishment caused mainly by the devotion of the family to the Catholic faith and association with the Gunpowder Plot. Subsequently the house became either a secondary seat for its owners or simply a tenanted farmhouse. The original staircase was removed and sold to America during the 1920s. Between 1957 and 1976 associated ancillary buildings were demolished and subsequent renovations to the remaining structure removed almost all remnants of internal detail. A faithful replica of the staircase has to some degree restored the internal circulation routes.