Hardwick Hall was built for 'Bess of Hardwick' between 1591 and 1597. Bess, born Elizabeth Hardwick, had been married four times and had outlived all her husbands.
Each husband had been richer and further up the social scale than the last.
With the considerable wealth bequeathed to her by her four husbands Bess built great houses, including Chatsworth. Hardwick Hall was the last house she had built and it was started after the death of her fourth husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, when she was 70 years old.
It is not know who the architect was but it is probable that Bess herself worked with Robert Smythson. The magnificent house has vast windows and six great towers, surmounted by her elaborate monogram, 'ES'.
The interior has fine plasterwork and is richly decorated and splendidly furnished. The High Great Chamber was especially designed to display the Brussels tapestries Bess had bought a few years before the building began. The Long Gallery, occupying the entire length of the east front, has a collection of family portraits.
There is a permanent needlework exhibition on display which contains some pieces that were identified in the inventory Bess had made when she moved into her new house in 1601. Some of the work is by Bess herself and Mary, Queen of Scots, who was held at Hardwick Hall for a time.
The house has many fine portraits including three of Bess, two of Mary Queen of Scots and others of Elizabeth I, Lord Burghly and James I.
Bess died in 1608 and Hardwick Hall passed to William Cavendish. The Earls and later Dukes of Devonshire added furniture and tapestries to Hardwick during the 17th century but Chatsworth became the principal family seat.
The house was left quite unaltered over the centuries and as a result the exterior of Hardwick Hall remains as Bess left it and the interior substantially as it was in 1688.
The house remained the property of the Cavendish family until it was accepted by the Treasury in part payment of death duties on the death of the 10th Duke of Devonshire. It was transferred to the National Trust in 1959.
The house is surrounded by superb gardens, divided into large walled courtyards. Here borders are planted with vast clumps of architectural plants in bold colours.
Elsewhere great yew and beech hedges create allées and provide the background to delightful statues. There is also a charming orchard with crab apples, damsons, plums, medlars and mulberries.
A highlight of Hardwick Hall is the magnificent herb garden, set in a sheltered walled garden with a nut walk along one side. Hardwick Hall stands in a fine park with avenues of limes. Here a collection of Longhorn cattle and Whiteface Woodland sheep graze.
2009: see website for Hall. Hall tours, Garden and Parkland times.
Tel: 01246 850430 Hardwick Hall Website
