HeritageXplore Club Exclusive

Name: Afternoon Tea at Belvoir, with Steven Moore
Start: 2026-12-10T12:00:00
End: 2026-12-10T23:59:59.999999
Location: Belvoir Castle

Dec. 10, 2026 at noon

Afternoon Tea at Belvoir, with Steven Moore

Belvoir Castle

Afternoon tea is said to have begun at Belvoir. In the 1840s, the story goes, Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford, staying at the castle, asked for tea in the late afternoon to bridge the long wait for dinner. A private habit became a social ritual. On Thursday 10th December, fifteen HeritageXplore Club members can take tea where it started, with the castle decked out for Christmas. You begin with a private tour of Belvoir, led by one of the castle’s head guides, with Steven Moore joining you. The tour ends in the Regent’s Gallery, a room that has appeared in The Crown, where you settle down to afternoon tea by the fire. Here, Steven will walk you through the ritual of taking afternoon tea, as it was done in fashionable society, with the stories behind it and time for your questions. Steven has been a regular expert on BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow since 2003 and is the author of The Stuff of History. A natural raconteur, he looks forward to meeting you at Belvoir.

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Afternoon Tea at Belvoir, with Steven Moore

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MORE ABOUT THIS LOCATION

BELVOIR CASTLE

Ascend to Belvoir's cloud-capped towers and airy terraces, where centuries of history unfold. Take in the regal Elizabeth Saloon, wander through the poetic Capability Brown landscapes, before concluding your journey at the Engine Yard, where the estate’s industrious past meets the artistry of modern craftsmanship.

Belvoir Castle

The current Belvoir Castle was completed in 1832 by John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland and his wife Lady Elizabeth Howard, who moved to Belvoir from Castle Howard in 1799. That castle was by no means the first on the site. There has been a castle on the site at Belvoir since the Norman Conquest, when William the Conqueror’s standard bearer Robert de Todeni was given the land by the king.

By 1464, the first castle, in a motte and bailey design, was more or less in ruins, wrecked by the Wars of the Roses, and 60 years later it was reconstructed in a medieval design for Sir Thomas Manners, later 1st Earl of Rutland, in whose family it has remained ever since. James VI came to this new Belvoir in 1612, and later, during the Civil War, Charles I stayed at Belvoir, before the house was razed to the ground by parliamentarians.

By 1668, a new house had been built at Belvoir by the architect John Webb for John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland, but this only lasted just over a century before the 5th Duke and Duchess of Rutland began yet another building project, with the architect James Wyatt in charge of what was planned as a romantic Gothic building. This was almost complete when in 1816 the house caught fire, with the loss of most of the new build and many of the pictures. The castle was rebuilt again to the same designs and completed – for the final time – in 1832, with the architect Sir James Thornton at the helm.

Today, the house and its 16,000-acre estate is run by Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland who, in 2016, embarked upon a two-year restoration programme to bring the lost plans of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown to fruition. Belvoir remains the seat of the Duke of Rutland and home to his five children.