Papillon House and the Cursed Brocade Shoes
Wikipedia tells us that Papillon Hall, off Theddingworth Road near Lubenham, was built in about 1620 and demolished in 1950. It was located adjacent to what is now the Bramfield Park Homes site. A French Huguenot architect and military engineer, David Papillon, was the man who built it. It was an octagonal, two-storey, stone house surrounded by a moat.
In about 1903, Sir Frank Bellville had the hall restructured by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. They set the building out in a butterfly plan, (Papillon is the French word for butterfly.) They retained the original hall at the centre of the design, and added an extra storey. The original hall contained the entrance hall and a sitting room. They built the four new wings in the shape of butterfly wings. They incorporated a dining room, billiard room, kitchen, and servants’ hall. To the east and west were two circular structures, the ante-room and the Basin Court. The court was open to the air, and connected the main part of the house with the kitchen and servants’ quarters. Further, it had a Tuscan colonnade.
The army requisitioned Papillon Hall during the Second World War and used it as a billet for the 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army. It was later demolished in 1950.
The garden house, wall and attached pillar, which formed part of the garden, were built as part of the 1903 renovations. These were subsequently listed as Grade II buildings on the 7 September 1995. In 2013, a survey showed that, in addition to the listed structures, there was also a lily pond, summerhouse, some walls, and the remains of a greenhouse. People now use the stables and outbuildings as farm buildings.
The cursed brocade shoes
David Papillon (1691–1762), known by locals as ‘Pamp’, reputedly had a Spanish mistress who they did not allow to leave the Hall. She died in mysterious circumstances in about 1715. There are no records of her death, but they found the body of a woman within an attic wall during the 1903 renovations. The mistress applied a curse that anyone who removed a pair of brocade shoes from the Hall would suffer an ill fate. During the 1903 renovation work, Sir Frank Bellville had the brocade shoes removed from the house. Shortly afterwards, Sir Frank was thrown from a pony and trap and suffered a broken skull. The brocade shoes were returned to the hall and are now owned by the Harborough Museum, Market Harborough. They are currently on display in New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in the Leicester Stories Gallery (highly recommended).
HDC’s future housing plan is flawed
