| Description | This is an estate archive the bulk of which relates to properties in the south of Derbyshire including Church Gresley, Overseal and Melbourne, and the north of Leicestershire, including Ashby de la Zouch, Breedon, Castle Donington, Packington and Whitwick. There is also a bundle of leases relating to the Rape of Hastings in Sussex. A large number of documents relate to the purchase of mineral rights and the leasing of coal seams and collieries to the Moira and Donisthorpe Colliery Companies. |
| Administrative History | General Sir Charles Hastings Bt., said to be an illegitimate son of the Earl of Huntingdon, married Parnell Abney, daughter and heiress of Thomas Abney of Willesley and so acquired Willesley Hall and lands in South Derbyshire and North-West Leicestershire in the late 18th century. On their son’s death in 1858, the estate passed to his kinsman, the Marquess of Hastings, subsequently to a relative by marriage, the Earl of Loudoun, and then to the Clifton-Hastings-Campbell family, created Barons Donington in 1880. |
| Custodial History | These records were deposited in January 1974 by a firm of solicitors. |