About Us

‘Reconnecting with place and land to develop skills for the future’

Cotesbach Educational Trust, a registered charity established in 2008, hosts and provides learning opportunities focusing on Heritage, Environment and Arts. 

We provide an active programme of public talks, workshops and events, bringing our history and heritage to life through hands-on learning activities. The unique family archive comprises thousands of documents such as letters, deeds and diaries dating back to the early 15th Century, which, thanks to an extensive cataloguing process, we can now share with the wider community. 

Using the archive as a constant reference point helps us to deliver our core aim of ‘Reconnecting with place and land to develop skills for the future’. We look to, and learn from the past in the hope of improving the future and protecting the environment.

In 2012 we received a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, together with smaller match funding amounts from a variety of funders, to restore three dilapidated buildings, create a second activity space and re-house our unique archive.

We have a 50 year lease on the buildings and archives from the Cotesbach Family Trust and our site comprises a restored Georgian Grade II listed Schoolhouse, toilets within the Victorian milking parlour, archive storage inside the Victorian coach house and a new space, The Glasshouse, constructed in oak and glass.

We are based in the heart of the rural Midlands, close to the meeting point of Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Northamptonshire in the beautiful and unique setting of Cotesbach Estate.

CET is managed by a Board of Trustees and is a registered charity (number 1126840)