About Ashleigh

Ashleigh's Heritage

Behind Ashleigh’s Victorian façade lies a fascinating history stretching back more than 150 years. The house has witnessed changing fashions, two World Wars, changing fortunes and countless families, and has reinvented itself several times along the way.

We are very proud to be its latest custodians.

A Chatsworth Estate House — 1868

Ashleigh was built in 1868 by the Chatsworth Estate, during a period when Buxton was becoming an increasingly fashionable spa town.

The house was originally created as a substantial residence for wealthy commercial families connected with Manchester and the growing industrial prosperity of the region. These families would escape the bustle of Manchester for the cleaner air and refined surroundings of Buxton and the Peak District.

Our first recorded custodians were a couple with two children and three servants. It is fascinating to imagine Ashleigh in those days: a busy Victorian household, with servants working behind the scenes while the family enjoyed the elegant rooms and gardens.

The house was very much a product of its time — substantial, comfortable and designed to demonstrate the status of the people who lived here.

Ashleigh and the First World War

Perhaps the most intriguing chapter in Ashleigh’s history comes during the period surrounding the First World War.

One of the families who lived here during those years were friends of Vera Brittain, the celebrated writer and pacifist whose experiences of the First World War were later immortalised in her memoir Testament of Youth.

Vera was a frequent visitor to Ashleigh and would spend time here talking with Mr Ellinger, including conversations in what is now our study.

It is remarkable to think that the very room in which our guests can now sit and read was once the setting for conversations about the rights and wrongs of a war that was reshaping Britain and the lives of an entire generation.

Standing in the study today, it is difficult not to wonder what those conversations were like — and what those living here thought as the world around them changed so dramatically.

From Family Home to Flats

As the decades passed, Ashleigh’s story continued to evolve.

In the 1930s, the house was divided into four separate apartments, reflecting a very different era in both property ownership and the way large Victorian houses were used.

Interestingly, when the attic was closed off during this period, it remained virtually untouched for generations.

When the staircase was eventually reopened, we discovered that nobody had been into the attic since around the 1930s.

Inside was a remarkable little time capsule.

There were remnants of pre-war and First World War-era wall coverings and floor coverings, giving us a tangible glimpse into the house’s earlier life. Rather than simply seeing old materials in photographs, we could actually touch and see traces of the people who had lived here more than 80 years earlier.

For us, that was one of the most exciting discoveries made during the restoration.

The Years of Decline

By the late 1980s, Ashleigh had fallen into considerable disrepair.

Eventually, one custodian took on the enormous task of bringing the building back to life. They lived comfortably within parts of the house while other sections were used for the restoration of antique furniture.

For a period, Ashleigh was therefore part family home, part workshop and part restoration project.

It was another incarnation in the long life of the building — and another example of how Ashleigh has continually adapted to the people and circumstances around it.

A New Chapter — 2019

In 2019, we became Ashleigh’s latest custodians.

Our ambition was never to erase its history or turn it into something it was never meant to be.

Instead, we wanted to restore Ashleigh sympathetically, retaining as much of its character and personality as possible while making it comfortable and practical for 21st-century living.

Behind the scenes, that meant a huge amount of work.

The building has been carefully upgraded with new wiring, new plumbing, improved insulation and modern heating and facilities. But wherever possible, we have tried to preserve the things that make Ashleigh special — its proportions, character and sense of history.

Over the past seven years, there has rarely been a time when we haven’t been tweaking, improving, restoring or finding another little corner of the building to bring back to life.

The Story Continues

Ashleigh’s story didn’t stop in 2019.

In 2022, we added the Coach House and three garages, creating another chapter in the property’s evolution.

Then, in 2026, we completed the transformation of the original stables into a new apartment — giving another part of Ashleigh’s historic buildings a new purpose for the future.

And there is something rather fitting about that.

A house that began life in 1868 as part of the Chatsworth Estate has now lived through Victorian Britain, the First World War, the Second World War, the age of apartments and antique restoration, and finally its new life as a place for people to come and enjoy the Peak District.

The £10 Garden

There is even a wonderfully quirky little footnote to Ashleigh’s Chatsworth connection.

Until 2021, a tiny two-square-foot piece of the garden was still owned by the Chatsworth Estate.

For many years, we paid the princely sum of £10 a year in rent for it.

It is only a tiny piece of land, but we rather liked the idea that, more than 150 years after Chatsworth built Ashleigh, there was still a little piece of the original ownership arrangement quietly surviving in the garden.

That finally came to an end in 2021, when we acquired the little piece of land ourselves.

Our Turn to Be Custodians

Wayne and I feel incredibly privileged to live at Ashleigh.

We don’t really think of ourselves as owners — we see ourselves as custodians.

Every generation that has lived here has left its own mark on the building, and our job is simply to look after it, enjoy it and make sure that it has a future.

Perhaps the greatest pleasure we have is standing on the driveway with our guests and telling them about Ashleigh.

We love explaining where it came from, who lived here, what we have discovered and how the building has changed over the generations.

Because when you stay at Ashleigh, you aren’t simply staying in a Victorian house.

You are becoming part of its story.

And after more than 150 years, Ashleigh’s story is still being written.