Our story · Ashby family since 1931
Three centuries of stone,
one family at the gate.
Wrenfield has been a working farm, a wartime convalescent home and a family house. Since 2014 it has also been where people come to get married, one wedding at a time.
N° 01 — The house
A house that was built to be lived in.
Wrenfield Manor was finished in 1702 for a wool merchant who wanted a house that looked down the valley rather than at the road. The threshing barn followed in 1786, the walled garden a little before it.
Hugo Ashby’s grandfather bought the estate in 1931. The family farmed it, lent it to the Red Cross during the war and slowly brought the barn back from ruin. The first wedding was Hugo and Clare’s own, in 2012; the second was a friend’s, and it grew from there.
N° 02 — The years
From threshing floor to dance floor.
The manor is finished
A Queen Anne house in honey-coloured stone, facing west down the valley.
The threshing barn is raised
Oak king-post trusses and two pairs of threshing doors. Today we call it the Hayloft.
The Ashbys arrive
Hugo’s grandfather buys the estate at auction with three hundred acres and a leaking roof.
The barn is saved
A new roof, the flagstone apron relaid and the trusses repaired by local joiners.
The first wedding season
Twelve weddings in the first year. Now it is around sixty, and never two on the same day.
N° 03 — The people
The team who will know your name.
Six of us run every wedding, from your first viewing to the last guest’s taxi.
Clare Ashby
Owner & your first call
Mae Okafor
Head of weddings
Tom Reid
Head chef
N° 04 — Looking after the estate
Light footprint, long memory.
— Heat from a ground-source pump under the paddock
— Every bottle and can recycled; no single-use plastic
— Flowers from our walled garden or within 20 miles
— Leftover food goes to the village pantry on Monday
N° 05 — Getting around
Honest about access.
— Every event space is step-free
— Ground-floor Garden Room with a level-access shower
— Hearing loop in the Hayloft and the Long Drawing Room
— The manor’s upper floor is stairs only; we will say so
Come and see it for yourself.
Viewings Thursday to Sunday. Walk the ceremony route, sit in the Hayloft and meet the team.