The grounds of the original Slepe Hall were of considerable size and elaborately laid out with trees and thick yew hedges in ornamental patterns. The earliest record of Slepe Hall or St Ives Hall was in 1632 when it was occupied by Squire Lawrence and his family. Oliver Cromwell also lived in St Ives at that time.

In 1688 Sir Edward Lawrence, presumably the squire's son, was in residence. In the 1740's Taylor White married Sir Edward's daughter and the hall moved into the White family's ownership. The family enjoyed considerable wealth from lead mines in Yorkshire and their fortunes increased in 1788 with a bequest of land in and around St Ives from Sir Thomas Fowkes, godfather to the White children.

In 1800 Colonel Taylor White became owner and, as a memorial in the parish church shows, his life was not without tragedy. Of his six children, four died at an early age and one aged 23. Colonel White died in 1847 and was survived by just one daughter.

The colonel had no heirs and lost all his money on farming projects at Burleigh Hill. The hall fell into disrepair and was dismantled and sold in 1848. Some years before the sale, Reverend John Rugeley started a school for young ladies, which was carried on in the existing Slepe Hall. This is believed to have been completed in 1850.

The 1851 census listed 33 occupants of Slepe Hall – Mrs Rugeley, Miss Ann Rugeley and various governesses, scholars and servants. Miss Ann Rugeley was Reverend Rugeley's sister who married and moved to Gloucestershire in 1860. From 1860 the school was run by the local vicar's wife who sold it to a Mrs Marshall, whose daughter, Grace, was a very capable teacher. She ran the school but when she married a dentist in 1874 and moved away, standards started to fall.

When Mrs Marshall put the building up for sale in 1877 great interest was shown by the Roman Catholic Church. This horrified the local Free Church and several prominent members put up the money to purchase the hall and installed Reverend Lloyd, the minister of the Free Church since 1861, and his wife, to run the school. Their daughter, Martha, was the guiding spirit of the school and ran it following her mother's death in 1913 until 1928. She died in 1943 aged 83.

Mrs Hilda Newton became headmistress in 1928, retiring in 1946 to be succeeded by Miss T E Buckfield. Miss C Palmer followed Miss Buckfield but retired after a year due to ill health. The last headmistress was Mrs Bebbington until 1965. Slepe Hall was purchased by local farmer, George Brown and Ian Stiles, a local baker. The building was then converted and opened as a hotel in 1966.