Historic Houses & Stately Homes of the Peak District

Historic Houses

In the centre of the county visit three of Englands loveliest houses with a history entwined with two of our most powerful dukedoms.

Start with Haddon Hall. It is located just south of Bakewell overlooking the River Wye and is the finest mediaeval house in the country. It dates back to the early 1300s when it was built by the Vernon family whose wealth came primarily from local lead mining. In the mid sixteenth century it came into the hands of the Manners family by marriage and remained untouched until restored to its former glory by the current Duke of Rutlands father in the 1920s. Move on to Chatsworth House one of our very greatest houses that needs little introduction. Owned by the Duke of Devonshire it is steeped in history, full of beautiful works of art and over the years the parks and gardens have been enhanced by such famous landscape gardeners as Capability Brown and Joseph Paxton.

Some thirty minutes drive to the east you can visit another Devonshire family property Hardwick Hall which is now owned by the National Trust. It is probably the most classic example of an Elizabethan manor house in the country. It has been left largely untouched as the Cavendish family have never really resided there on a permanent basis. It was built by Bess of Hardwick one of the most powerful characters in England at the time. She married into the Cavendish family and it was she who moved westwards to build the first Chatsworth House.

The village of Tissington is perhaps the prettiest and most attractive in Derbyshire. Situated just four miles north of Ashbourne off the A515 Buxton road, the village is approached along a mile-long lime avenue. The FitzHerbert family have owned and run this Estate Village for the best part of 500 years and for the first time in 1998 the present Squire Sir Richard is opening his home, Tissington Hall, to the public. The hall will be open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons in the months of June and July and all access will be guided tours only between 2.00 and 5.00pm. Allied to the hall is a ten acre garden with a well-maintained arboretum, mainly planted by the expansive Victorians.

The village contains about 50 properties all built in the local vernacular limestone and the majority of cottages face the picturesque village green. Other attractions in the village are the Tissington Nursery (which specialises in various bedding and potting shrubs and plants), situated in the Old Kitchen Gardens by the pond; and The Old Coach House which is the recently refurbished new tea rooms providing lunches and teas on a daily basis through the summer months. Whilst there, one must try the superb carrot cake!!

The well-known festival of Well-dressings takes place at Ascension Day every year. The wells are dressed in brilliant floral patterns depicting biblical scenes and are put up to praise the Lord for providing ceaseless supplies of fresh water in both the plague and drought years. The week starts with the Blessing service at St Marys Church followed by the Procession around the six wells when each Well is blessed and a hymn and prayer are said. The Village expects a huge influx of visitors during the week and the collages can be viewed up to dusk each evening.

Stately Homes

Derbyshire is a county rich in great houses. Sudbury Hall until recent years Sudbury was less well known than its more celebrated neighbours because it was never open to the public. The house, which belonged to the Vernon family from 1513 to 1967 when it passed to the National Trust, is one of the most interesting in the Midlands. Pettifer, Laguerre, Pierce and Gibbons have all contributed to the richness of its interiors.

Calke Abbey was built in 1703 for Sir John Harpur to replace his old seat at Swarkestone. Calke is the second largest house in Derbyshire and is a Victorian time warp. When Sir Vauncey brought a bride to Calke in 1876 he shut up his own bachelor bedroom containing the stuffed heads of deer he shot as a boy together with his collection of butterflies and moved to a more suitable chamber. His old room remained dust laden and neglected, the clutter of a Victorian boyhood strewn upon floor and bed. The Victorian clutter remains and the drawing room and great saloon are as they were when Calke was in its heyday.

Kedleston Hall was the last built of the great houses of Derbyshire and one of the famous examples of Robert Adams work. It is the successor of at least two other large buildings on the same site occupied by members of the Curzon family since Henry Is reign. Within the house, the most splendid room is the Marble Hall which must rank only after the High Great Chamber at Hardwick amongst the most magnificent apartments in the county. Melbourne Hall is full of fine furniture and paintings and rich in historical associations. Their gardens are among the most notable in the county. The Hall, originally the old rectory occupied by the Bishops of Carlisle, was in 1628 leased by Sir John Coke, a Secretary of State to Charles 1.

The formers great grandson, Sir Thomas came to live at the house in 1696 and rebuilt much of it. For a time in the nineteenth century the house belonged to Lord Melbourne, Queen Victorias first Prime Minister.
Renishaw Hall The home of the Sitwell family who have contributed so much to literature and poetry in the twentieth century. Osbert Sitwell wrote though this lovely country teams with industry, every prospect is idyllic, and chimneys in the distance become tall obelisks. Renishaws beautiful gardens are open to the public on certain days as advertised in the press. The Hall was built in 1625 and enlarged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Sir Edmund Lutyens was also involved in the 1900s.

Wingfield Manor - The imposing ruins of Wingfield Manor dominate the skyline at South Wingfield. It was here that Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner on behalf of Queen Elizabeth 1. The Manor has a wealth of legend and folklore surrounding it. However, history shows that a local squire from Dethick, Anthony Babbington, plotted Marys escape and as a result both were executed.