englishheritage

Hardwick Hall

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A photo of the outside of Hardwick Hall

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. It’s a National Trust property to the east of Chesterfield, and I’ll be honest, I hadn’t heard of it until a few weeks ago.

I came across it via this YouTube video from Auto Shenanigans. The M1 passes by Hardwick Hall, and when it was upgraded to be a ‘smart’ motorway a few years ago, the National Trust insisted that the new gantries must be painted brown, to blend in better. Anyway, it turns out Hardwick Hall is doable as a day trip for us, even though I didn’t include it in my list from last year. And, it’s something of a new year’s resolution for me to visit more National Trust places this year, so that we make the most of our annual membership.

History of Hardwick Hall

You can read a more detailed history of Hardwick Hall on the National Trust web site, but the building owes much of its design to Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury who lived in the Elizabethan period. She was more commonly known as ‘Bess of Hardwick’, and her initials ‘ES’ appear all over the building. She had four husbands during her life, the second of which was William Cavendish. If the Cavendish name sounds familiar, it’s because the Cavendish family owned nearby Chatsworth and Bolton Abbey. Indeed, following Bess’ death in 1607, the hall passed to the Cavendish family’s ownership, where it remained until after the Second World War. Faced with a large tax bill, the Cavendish family bequeathed Hardwick Hall to the National Trust in 1956.

More recently, Hardwick Hall has been used as a filming location. You may recognise it as ‘Malfoy Manor’ in the film adaptations of the books-that-shall-not-be-named.

Nowadays, it is one of the National Trust’s ‘top tier’ properties, and so there are regular events there during school holidays. We visited towards the end of ‘Wintertide’, which saw the rooms decorated for an Elizabethan winter and a seasonable tale of mischief installed throughout the house and gardens. During the half term break next month, there’s a planned Valentines event for kids.

Hardwick Old Hall

On the same site are the remnants of an older grand house, now known as Hardwick Old Hall. Most of the outer walls remain, but there’s no overall roof or window panes. It didn’t burn down; instead, the stonework was gradually removed and shipped over to Chatsworth to support work there. It would have been cheaper to use existing carved stones, than to have new stone quarried. Whilst the wider Hardwick site is managed by the National Trust, Hardwick Old Hall is in the care of English Heritage. It was closed when we went, but re-opens in February.

Gardens and estate

The Hardwick estate covers around 2500 acres of parkland, and there are a number of signposted walks. This includes a sculpture walk, which we would have considered doing on a warmer day but decided not to.

The formal gardens around the house are enclosed within walls, and will probably look fabulous later in the year. Alas, there’s not much to see mid-winter,

Accessibility

There are two car parks at Hardwick Hall; the main one, close to the hall and the stableyard, and a second one at Hardwick Park Centre which is further away and down a hill. If you have accessibility needs, park at the main car park; there is also an accessible buggy that can take visitors to the hall. The stableyard includes a Changing Places toilet.

At present, there is one electric vehicle charging socket in the lower car park (type 2). Planning permission for chargers in the main car park has apparently been granted, but work hadn’t started yet as I type this.

Google Maps gave up when I asked it to work out public transport directions to Hardwick Hall; there doesn’t appear to be any local bus services and the nearest railway station is in Chesterfield.

Entry to the whole site is free for National Trust members, and English Heritage members get free entry to both Hardwick Hall itself and Hardwick Old Hall. A cheaper ticket that just covers the estate and stableyard (not the houses or gardens) is also available to non-members.

Byland Abbey

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A photo of Byland Abbey

One thing we’re not short of in England is ruined abbeys and monasteries – Henry VIII had a lot to answer for – and one that we visited a few years ago was Byland Abbey.

Byland Abbey is in North Yorkshire, a few miles due east of Ampleforth Abbey, and we visited on the same day in 2019. I say visited; we pulled up, I took a few photos, and then we carried on. Compared to other ruined abbeys like Fountains Abbey, there isn’t much of Byland Abbey left now. However, you can see from my photo that it would have a large rose window in its heyday, and this inspired the rose window at York Minster.

Nowadays, Byland Abbey is managed by English Heritage. It’s free to go in, and if you wanted you could probably spend 30 minutes to an hour there. In the summer months, you can see an interesting tiled floor in the old church.

Just be aware that there’s only a very small car park at the site, and bus services through Byland are very infrequent with just three per day from York. There’s no visitor centre, so if you need the toilet, you’ll need to ask nicely at the local pub.

What we didn’t do in Northumberland

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I managed to span the list of things we did whilst on holiday in Northumberland to eight blog posts, representing the seven days that we were on holiday. Because it was a short holiday, there were lots of places that we could have visited, but didn’t have the time. Here are some of them.

Alnwick Castle

Whilst we did visit The Alnwick Garden, which is adjacent and shares a car park, we didn’t go into the more famous castle next door. It dates from the 11th Century, following the Norman Conquest, although it was extensively re-modelled in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It’s often been used as a filming location, with the first series of Blackadder set there. More recently, it was used in last year’s Dungeons and Dragons film, and featured in the first two films about that wizard boy whose enemy cannot be named.

Howick Hall

Not far from Seahouses is Howick Hall, the ancestral home of the Earls Grey. The hall itself is open to visitors, as are its gardens and arboretum, and of course there’s a café where presumably there’s an expectation that you’ll drink Earl Grey Tea. Whilst the Earls Grey have owned the site since the 14th Century, the current house is less than 100 years old, having been substantially rebuilt following a fire.

Craster

Craster is another pretty fishing village like Seahouses. Whilst Seahouses claims to be where kippers where invented, Craster Kippers are more well-known. Craster is also known for its lobsters and crabs.

Dunstanburgh Castle

Had we visited Craster, we could have also called in at Dunstanburgh Castle. It’s a ruin – moreso than Warkworth Castle – and it’s just over a mile’s walk from Craster where the nearest car park is. We saw it from a distance as it’s on the coast, but the long walk from the car park and the fact that it’s a ruin put us off.

Beadnell

One of the main roads into Seahouses from the A1 passes the village of Beadnell, and so we drove past it multiple times without actually going into the village itself. It’s also a harbour, and looked quite pretty in some paintings that we saw.

Grace Darling Museum

Up the coast in the village of Bamburgh, and just a short walk from Bamburgh Castle, is the RNLI’s Grace Darling Museum. Grace Darling lived on the Farne Islands and was a daughter of one of the lighthouse keepers. She came to fame in 1838, when she was 22 years old, by risking her life to rescue the stranded survivors of a shipwreck – of the 62 people on board, all but three were rescued. Whilst she died a few years later aged 26, she managed to go down in history as a local heroine. The museum opened in 1938 to mark 100 years since her dramatic rescue.

Whilst the museum was very close to where we were staying, we’d pencilled it in for a day of bad weather. As it was, we were really lucky with the weather and so didn’t need an indoor backup plan.

Northumberland Zoo

Our summer holidays normally result in a zoo or aquarium visit, but we didn’t find the time this year. Had we stayed for longer, then we may have gone to Northumberland Zoo. It’s less than 10 years old, and tends to have smaller animals; the largest are medium-sized cats like servals, lynx and snow leopards.

Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum

Most people associate bagpipes with Scotland, but Northumberland has its own bagpipes, and there’s a museum about them in Morpeth. Indeed, it’s home to over 120 pipe instruments from around the world.

I’ve no doubt that we’ll have another holiday in Northumberland at some point in the future, and we may well visit some of these places that we didn’t manage to fit in.

Our 2024 holiday: Warkworth Castle

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A photo of the entrance gate to Warkworth Castle

This is the fifth blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about The Farne Islands, and today is about our visit to Warkworth Castle.

One of the things that Northumberland is known for is its castles. We’d already been to Bamburgh Castle, and passed near to Alnwick Castle. Warkworth Castle is further south, and to the east of Alnwick and near Alnmouth. It’s an English Heritage property.

Unlike Bamburgh, Warkworth Castle hasn’t been extensively restored. Whilst the outer walls remain, most of the interior buildings have gone. The keep is still there but it’s not furnished inside – just a series of empty rooms. Although each room had a metal plaque labelling it, there was a real lack of information about what each room was used for. I’m sure Warkworth Castle had an interesting history, but I didn’t feel like I learned much whilst there.

Thankfully, there was a medieval falconry display by Raphael Historic Falconry taking place when we visited. Whilst I’ve seen plenty of falconry displays over the years, it was good to learn about how birds were used to hunt during the medieval period. They’re back again next week; if you are going to visit Warkworth Castle, maybe do so when there’s an event on, as otherwise you may struggle to fill even half a day there.

Accessibility

Wheelchair access is possible to ground floor, but not to the keep or any other indoor areas. Alnmouth is the nearest railway station, and from there you can catch a couple of bus services – there’s a 15% discount if you arrive by public transport. A car park is available on site. English Heritage members get in free.