Headley Grange facts for kids

Barn in the grounds at Headley Grange

Headley Grange is a famous old building in Headley, Hampshire, England. It was once a workhouse, a place where poor people lived and worked. Today, it is a special historic building. Headley Grange is best known for being a place where famous rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Genesis practiced and recorded music in the 1960s and 1970s.

Headley Grange: A Building with History

From Workhouse to Home

Headley Grange was built in 1795. It is a large stone building with three floors. At first, it was used as a workhouse. This was a place for people who were poor, sick, or had no family. It served three local areas: Bramshott, Headley, and Kingsley. In 1830, there was a disturbance at the building.

In 1870, a builder named Thomas Kemp bought the building for £420. He changed it into a private home and gave it the name Headley Grange.

Where Rock Legends Made Music

Headley Grange became a very important place for music in the 1960s and 1970s. Many famous bands used it as a place to practice and record their songs.

Led Zeppelin's Creative Hub

The legendary band Led Zeppelin created parts of several albums at Headley Grange. These albums include Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV, Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti.

Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin's singer, wrote most of the words for their famous song "Stairway to Heaven" there. He wrote them in just one day! Another song from Led Zeppelin IV, "Black Dog", got its name from a black Labrador Retriever dog. This dog often hung around Headley Grange while the band was recording.

Jimmy Page, the guitarist for Led Zeppelin, explained why they liked Headley Grange. He said it was a bit old and the heating didn't work well. But it was great because other bands had used it without problems. This meant they could focus on their music without being disturbed.

Page also told Mojo magazine in 2010 that they wanted a place where they could live and breathe the music. He said it was different from other times they had worked. At Headley Grange, all the band members could concentrate together. This intense focus helped create music for three of their albums.

Other Bands at The Grange

The band Help Yourself also lived at Headley Grange from 1971 to 1973. They practiced there for their albums Beware The Shadow and Strange Affair.

Peter Gabriel and other members of the band Genesis also worked at Headley Grange. They wrote much of the music for their 1974 album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway while staying there.

Headley Grange in Film

In 2009, a documentary film called It Might Get Loud was released. In this film, Jimmy Page visits Headley Grange. He talks about how Led Zeppelin recorded Led Zeppelin IV there.

He showed how the drums for the song "When the Levee Breaks" were recorded in the building's large hallway. The hallway had amazing acoustics, which means the sound echoed in a special way. This made the drums sound very powerful.

Page later shared his feelings about visiting the Grange again. He said it looked much like he remembered it from when they played there. The same family still owned it, and the granddaughter of the lady who rented it to Led Zeppelin lived there. He was surprised to see it as a home with furniture and pictures. But the hallway still had the same dimensions, and he remembered the room where he slept. It was a very emotional visit for him.