July 14 & 16, 2018 - Hardwick Hall & David Austin Roses

Next on our tour of stately homes, castles, and gardens in and around Derbyshire was Hardwick Hall. As always, a Wikipedia description is requisite.

Hardwick Hall, in Derbyshire, is an architecturally significant Elizabethan country house in England, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for the formidable Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect Robert Smythson, an exponent of the Renaissance style of architecture. Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest examples of the English interpretation of this style, which came into fashion having slowly spread from Florence. Its arrival in Britain fortuitously coincided with the period when it was no longer necessary or legal to fortify a domestic dwelling. Ownership of the house was transferred to the National Trust in 1959. Today, it is fully open to the public.

The entrance to Hardwick is through the former stables.  There are shops and restaurants and a large grassy field with many games for kids in this area.

There are ruins of a former mansion on the property.

The wall around Hardwick Hall is rather ornate and imposing.

The family crest is prominently displayed throughout the property.  The "E.S." on the top of the house stands for Elizabeth of Shrewsbury.  She was quite a powerful woman.  We were told numerous times that she desperately wanted to be royalty.  Though she was never able to rise to the throne or to have any of her children do so, it is interesting to note that the current Princes William and Harry descend from Bess of Hardwick through both of their parents.  The following is what Wikipedia says about Bess.

Bess of Hardwick:

Elizabeth Cavendish, later Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1527 – 13 February 1608), known as Bess of Hardwick (neé Elizabeth Hardwick), of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, was a notable figure of Elizabethan English society. By a series of well-made marriages, she rose to the highest levels of English nobility and became enormously wealthy. Bess was a shrewd business woman, increasing her assets with business interests including mines and glass making workshops.

She was married four times, firstly to Robert Barlow, who died aged about 14 or 15 on 24 December 1544;[3] secondly to the courtier Sir William Cavendish; thirdly to Sir William St Loe; and lastly to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, sometime keeper to the captive Mary, Queen of Scots. An accomplished needlewoman, Bess joined her husband's captive charge at Chatsworth House for extended periods in 1569, 1570, and 1571, during which time they worked together on the Oxburgh Hangings.

In 1601, Bess ordered an inventory of the household furnishings including textiles at her three properties at Chatsworth, Hardwick and Chelsea, which survives, and in her will she bequeathed these items to her heirs to be preserved in perpetuity. The 400-year-old collection, now known as the Hardwick Hall textiles, is the largest collection of tapestry, embroidery, canvaswork, and other textiles to have been preserved by a single private family. Bess is also well known for her building projects, the most famous of which are: Chatsworth, now the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire (whose family name is Cavendish as they descend from the children of her second marriage), and Hardwick Hall.

As mentioned above in the Wikipedia piece on Bess of Hardwick, the Hall has an abundance of tapestries, some of which are extraordinarily well preserved.

Do you think Bess had aspirations to the throne? This is the room where guests were received.

The design on the table top below is all inlaid wood, showing various games and musical instruments.  It is impressive!

They told us that one of the owners used this hall to exercise his greyhounds (who incidentally ruined a large tapestry by repeatedly urinating on it). 

Notice the toilet drawer.  We can't imagine that it was too fun for the servants to clean out. We also don't think that we would be too keen to use any items stored in that cupboard!

We were impressed by the intricate locking mechanism on this chest.  One has to wonder if the chest itself or its contents were worth more.

Hardwick has many pieces of impressive furniture and other detail work. The ornate table below can actually be disassembled into several manageable parts so that it can be transported. It was known to have been taken up to the roof for summer dinners.

It's not hard to imagine this sizable kitchen bustling with servants.

Many of the large kitchens we have visited have contraptions like this one that use a fan that is driven by heat of the cooking fire to operate a rotisserie that hangs down in front of the fire.  It seems that the rotisserie machinery pre-dates the cast-iron stove.

We loved the extensive gardens of Hardwick.  They had areas that were extremely manicured and others that were quite wild. Like most of the places that we have visited, there are the very beautiful gardens near the house for show, then farther out, are kitchen gardens, green houses, orchards, and herbal beds for medicinal uses. Much of what was eaten was grown on the grounds or hunted in the associated woodlands.

We talked about stumperies in our Biddulph Grange Garden post.  This was Harwick's stumpery.

There is a MASSIVE double horseshoe of trees surrounding the property and then extending out along the old road to the house. These are now huge old Lime Trees, which are a favorite around here (in Utah they are called Lindon Trees). We have included a Google maps photo to give you the aerial view of the enormity of it.  It's impossible to capture the scope of it in a picture. Impressive!

This reflecting pond looks standard enough, but is actually very deep, and was built to be a back-up emergency water reserve for times of drought.

We love all the massive trees!

The herb garden here was really big and chock full of interesting stuff- including Opium Poppies 😲.

If you look closely in the picture below, you can see Mark.  He is only halfway down the length of this hedge-walled hall!  If you look back at the aerial view, you can see there are four garden quadrants.  In the picture below, Mark is standing in the middle of the four quadrants.

David Austin Roses

Maybe it's a little weird to include this with Hardwick Hall, but it seemed as good a place as anywhere.  On July 16th Mark had a meeting near Coventry with an expert in the therapy he is learning.  The meeting was in the afternoon, so we decided to try to satisfy Heather's need to see plants (ha ha, like that's possible!) by visiting the home store and "showroom" of David Austin Roses. She had really been hoping to see this place. Wikipedia (Is it possible to rely on Wikipedia too much?) says the following:

David Charles Henshaw Austin OBE (born 16 February 1926) is a rose breeder and writer who lives in Shropshire, England.[1] His emphasis is on breeding roses with the character and fragrance of old garden roses (such as gallicas, damasks and alba roses) but with the repeat-flowering ability and wide colour range of modern roses such as hybrid teas and floribundas.

Wow! Even Mark and Hannah were impressed by the roses...and the smell!!! Heather was very excited to see all of the David Austin varieties "in person," rather than just as a picture on a screen, and all in one place! Even though the weather had been hot, dry, and windy, and the roses were past their peak, it was truly amazing to see! Sadly (for Heather...Luckily for Mark), they cannot ship to the USA due to the one year quarantine requirements. But they do have an outlet in Texas that carries a smaller variety (for a hefty price!).