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Summary

Grade I listed mansion of 1590-7; mostly as originally built, but with alterations in 1788 and service wing of 1860

Monument Type(s):

• GREAT HOUSE (Post Medieval - 1590 AD to 1597 AD)

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• EDR735 - Ordnance Survey Field Report, 02-DEC-59
• EDR923 - Ordnance Survey Field Report, 09-JUN-66
• EDR3341 - Landscape evaluation, Hardwick Hall, by Mott MacDonald, in 2004
• EDR3697 - Archaeological survey, Hardwick Hall, by The National Trust, in 1985

Full Description

SK 4631 6374. HARDWICK HALL [GT]. (1)

The new Hardwick Hall, started in 1591 and completed in 1597 by [the Countess of Shrewsbury] Bess of Hardwick, is basically H-shaped, with a double-stepped extension at each of its shorter ends. The entrance hall is remarkable in that it goes right across the middle of the house at right angles to the front. There is no known earlier example of this arrangement. The crenellated garden wall and gateway, triangular lodge and triangular, bastion- like summer pavilions are well preserved. (Included is a detailed description of the principal rooms.) (2)

Hardwick Hall, which has undergone no alteration, is a most complete specimen of Elizabethan domestic architecture "among the higher ranks". (Brief description, with mention of tapestry dated, in part, 1478). (3)

Detailed description of the building of the Hall, reference to Building Accounts and other ancient documents, list of rooms. See AO/59/314/5 & 6. (4)

Description of Hall; some history. (5)

The Hall is controlled by the National Trust but is still the home of the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. Parts of the Hall are open to the public on payment. A ten-step programme of repair by the Trust and M.O.W. Ancient Monuments Branch is about to begin. The Hall is accurately described by Authority 2. An extension to the northeast is of more recent date but otherwise the building is a large mansion with outer walling and details all of one date of building. Accurately shown on the 25" AM survey. (6)

No change. (7)

Hardwick Hall. One of the major monuments of English architecture with splendid contemporary interior. Grade 1. (8)

Additional descriptive references. (9-10)

Hardwick Hall. Country House, 1590-97,probably by Robert Smythson for Bess of Hardwick. Alterations 1788. Service wing 1860 by S Rollinson of Chesterfield. Grade I. (11)

Additional source. (12)

The estate at Hardwick came into existance in the second quarter of the 13th century when land was granted by Robert Savage, lord of the manor of Stainsby, to a man named Jocelin, whose son William then held the estate until William's death in 1289. The first Hardwick actually mentioned was Roger Hardwick, who was granted the estate in 1391 by William Lowe of Chesterfield. The estate remained in the Hardwick faimily until William Cavendish purchased Hardwick Hall from his uncle, James Hardwick in 1583 for £9500. James Hardwick had previously enlarged the Hardwick estate and kept it as a whole, keeping it indirectly in the Hardwick family's hands until the purchase. (14)

It is possible, by reference to the building accounts of houses, to locate the sources of stone as both great and small houses generally obtained their stone from within a three mile radius; often a quarry or quarries would be opened specifically to supply a building. The prominent buildings on the Permian scarp, Bolsover Castle and Hardwick Halls, obtained their stone from quarries opened specifically for the building work. Robert Smythson desiged Hardwick Hall for Bess of Hardwick as a large building with the revolutionary use of glass with work commencing in 1591. This and the earlier Hardwick Old Hall, a rebuilding by Bess of her brother's house of 1582-86, are both built of a Westphalian buff fine-grained sandstone, that below the Clowne Coal, quarried from just beneath the scarp off the drive up to the halls. (15)

For SMRs on Hardwick Hall, see:
Hardwick Old Hall, Ault Hucknall, (SMR 214)
Hardwick Hall, Ault Hucknall, (SMR 216)
Hardwick Park, Hardwick Hall, Ault Hucknall, (SMR 207)
Conduit House, Hardwick Hall, Ault Hucknall, (SMR 215)
Gardens and pleasure grounds, Hardwick Hall, Ault Hucknall, (SMR 217)
Courtyard and wall, Hardwick Hall, Ault Hucknall, (SMR 264)

<1> OS 6" 1914-39 (Map). SDR12056.

<2> Pevsner, N, 1953, The Buildings of England: Derbyshire, 1st edition, pp 41, 149-55 (Bibliographic reference). SDR190.

<3> Lysons, D & Lysons, S, 1817, Magna Britannia, Volume 5: Derbyshire, pp ccxxxviii-ix, illust. (Bibliographic reference). SDR84.

<4> Stallybrass, B, 1913, 'Bess of Hardwick's buildings and building accounts', Archaeologia (Article in serial). SDR1502.

<5> D August, 1873, The Antiquary 3, No. 62 1873 (Article in serial). SDR15208.

<6a> Frost, V. B., *Oral: MR V. B. Frost, National Trust, Hardwick Hall (Verbal communication). SDR11846.

<6> F1 WW 02-DEC-59 (Personal Observation). SDR6476.

<7> F2 JB 09-JUN-66 (Personal Observation). SDR6613.

<8> DOE (HHR) Blackwell RD Derby Sept 1961 2 (Bibliographic reference). SDR5098.

<9> R Fedden R Joekes, 1977, Untitled Source (Bibliographic reference). SDR9379.

<10> Durant, D, 1980, 1980 (Article in serial). SDR1516.

<11> Untitled Source (Bibliographic reference). SDR5177.

<12> NDAT, 0049 (Index). SDR10835.

<13> English Heritage, 1999, Hardwick Hall. Registered Parks and Gardens description., PG1418 (Unpublished document). SDR19932.

<14> Riden, P, 2010, 'The Hardwicks of Hardwick Hall in the 15th and 16th Centuries' Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (Article in serial). SDR22385.

<15> Stanley, M, 1990, Carved in bright stone: sources of building stone in Derbyshire (Bibliographic reference). SDR23342.

Sources and Further Reading

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