Groby was mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086, when it was described as having "land for 4 ploughs, 10 villagers with 1 Freeman and 5 smallholders have 3 ploughs...the value was 20s; now 60s." Ulf is shown as the lord of Markfield, Groby, Blaby and Ratby in the hundred of Guthlaxton in Leicestershire in 1066. By 1086, the lord was Hugh de Grandmesnil who was also associated with the hundreds of Goscote, Guthlaxton and Gartree in Leicestershire. The estate was held by the Ferrers family until 1445 when it passed to the Grey family. By 1800 the village had expanded with the population reaching 250, and by 1920 it had reached 1,000. Employment in the village was largely in the local granite quarries and in farming. The seventh Earl of Stamford and 3rd Earl of Warrington employed the London architect Mr M.J. Dain of Dain and Parsons to design the Jacobean style mansion to replace the former hunting lodge the Grey family used at Groby when they were hunting in Leicestershire, this mansion was built by the local builder of Groby Mr Thomas Rudkin, Bradgate House was completed in 1856 and built to the north-west of the village and referred to as the Calendar House because it had 365 windows, 52 rooms, and 12 main chimneys. The Earls niece Mrs Katherine Henrietta Venezia Grey sold the Leicestershire estates in 1925, she inherited these in 1905, including Bradgate House, which was demolished (although the ruins of its extravagant stable block remain), from which many villagers bought their homes. Plots of land in the area were subsequently sold to builders, leading to a significant expansion of the village.