Hardwick Hall and Hardwick Old Hall - visited 22th July 2024

This was the last big ol' house we visited on our holiday last week.

Hardwick Hall is an Elizabethan 'prodigy house', which is a large fancy Elizabethan or Jacobean English country house built to show off wealth or status with MASSIVE windows (and other features haha). It was built between 1590-1597. The story of Bess Hardwick whose house it was is fascinating. She was the second richest woman in England, second only to Elizabeth I and survived four husbands. Her last husband, the Earl of Shewsbury, was the keeper of Mary Queen of Scots who was essentially the prisoner of Elizabeth I. He ended up being her keeper for 15 years and it broke his health and finances and by extension broke down his relationship with Bess and probably killed him in the end. 

Hardwick Hall is a National Trust house and has been wonderfully preserved. It was used in the filming of Malfoy Manor in Harry Potter, except they added some turret roofs. They also filmed in the entrance Hall.

Malfoy Manor - you can see that a bit of CGI has created roofs on the turrets

Here's Bess - she looks very much like Elizabeth I

Hall looking toward the door

Hall looking away from the door

Muniments Chamber - documentation relating to land ownership, etc. Bess had a LOT of property

Mary Queen of Scots

Elizabeth I

Long Gallery

Thomas Cavendish and the ill fated Catherine of Aragon

Another Thomas Cavendish and the best husband ever (NOT) - Henry VIII

Cabinet thought to have been owned by Mary Queen of Scots - it smells of spices so they wondered if it was some kind of place to pray (i.e. the spice smell is incense) it opens up.

Detail on cabinet - the weird creature is a dolphin, obviously carved by someone who has never seen a dolphin haha, it looks like the Loch Ness Monster with false teeth

Embroidery panel by Mary Queen of Scots while in captivity under Bess's husband, the design is so interesting - you can see the thistles representing Scotland (Queen of Scotland), Lily of France (Queen of France) - there is also a caged cat in the top left corner with mice playing outside (a hint at 'while the cat's away the mice will play) and finally you see the Rose of England (a strong hint of her belief that she should be Queen of England too). It was all very bold for a captive Queen no wonder Queen Elizabeth was suspicious of her haha!

Withdrawing chamber

The Great Kitchen - some of these appliances are later additions, not Elizabethan as during that time cooking was done over open fires, they are 17th-19th Century.

Hardwick Old Hall

There is also the ruin of Hardwick Old Hall at the site. This is where Bess lived prior to building Hardwick Hall. It was a manor house when Bess was born in 1527 and extensions and extra floors were added over the years until it became quite a rabbit warren of rooms and floors.

It became a ruin as the stone was used to build Chatsworth House. The Duke of Devonshire is from the family of Bess Hardwick, as is King Charles III through his mother. Elizabeth II.

Well that's it for Hardwick Hall, I hope you enjoyed visiting with me!

Sarah x

Bolsover Castle - Visited 10th July 2024

On Wednesday we visited Bolsover Castle, which is owned by English Heritage. It's not a real castle but rather it's a Stuart mansion which was built where a medieval castle once stood. There is a little 'castle' and the ruins of the 'Terrace Range' which were apparently very impressive banqueting rooms and a large kitchen.

It was kind of interesting to visit, there were some really cool rooms but the rest was mostly a bunch of empty damp rooms and blank panelled rooms that had no information on display - we should have bought the tour guide book! There were some rooms that had painted panelling - and we came across a woman doing some conservation work on the paintings, which was interesting.

I had a very nice Cornish Pasty in the cafe though, so that made up for my slight disappointment.

Ruins of Terrace Gallery

Little castle and wall walk

Fountain Garden with Venus in the middle.

The following are pictures of the more decorated rooms... I'm not sure which rooms they were, I didn't make a note.

Painting of Hercules doing his thing

Money doesn't buy taste, that's for sure haha.

Sarah x

Haddon Hall - visited 9th July 2024

G and I are currently on a short holiday staying in a cottage in Derbyshire. It's a lovely location, just outside of Chesterfield.

We're only here for a few days and the weather has been constantly grey and drizzly, so not much opportunity to explore the countryside sadly. BUT, no matter, it's a good excuse to do one of my favourite things! Explore stately homes and castles and whatnot.

On Tuesday we visited the beauuuuutiful Haddon Hall. It's a fascinating old place, and, because the family moved out in the 1700s to another house but maintained the place, it has escaped some of the 'modernising' of the Georgians and Victorians - so not as much marble and pillars as Chatsworth (which you may have seen as the residence of Mr Darcy in the film adaptation of P&P).

Anyhoop, here are some pics and a bit of info.

View from the river

The hall has been around since the 11th century and was mentioned in Domesday Book in 1087. It looks like a castle, but isn't. There was a fortified wall built in 1194, permission granted by John Lackland (future King John) at the time (an aside: you needed royal permission to build fortified walls otherwise you might just be seen to be planning your own little kingdom... reigning kings are a tad suspicious of that kind of thing - which is a bit ironic as John was definitely planning against his brother King Richard who was crusading most of the time). Like many ye olde houses, it's be extended numerous times.

Courtyard

It was a fascinating place to walk around, with many uneven floors worn down over many years, and a huge open fire in the Hall, which they had lit that day.

Banqueting Hall - nice fire - it's definitely a bit chilly for July!

The chapel is beautiful, it's Norman (around 1150) with later extensions. The walls are decorated with beautiful frescoes from about1425, that were damaged and covered during the reformation, and then discovered in 1858 underneath layers of whitewash.

You can just make out some of the fresco around the window

This fresco shows St Christopher

Entrance into Hall - you can see how worn the floor is

Some beautiful tapestries - 15th - 17th century

The Long Gallery

I've made this one extra large so you can see the signatures

Above the picture is of signed tiles above a fireplace - you can make out King George V who has put RI next to his name which is Rex Imperator, i.e. King-Emperor the last British Emperor, his wife Mary is on there twice. According to the volunteer we chatted to Mary was quite the collector and well known for taking what she wanted from houses she visited. So it was important to hide anything you really liked before she visited - this amused me a bit. You'll also see Alexandra - which I think is Princess Alexandra, Charles is on there twice - Prince of Wales at both times of visiting, and Princess Anne. Very random but interesting. Hey, nice of you to visit, can you sign my fireplace?

Nice little doorway shot there

The gardens were lovely. Very fragrant!

It's a beautiful spot

So that's it for Haddon Hall.

Sarah x