HADDON HALL
PLAN YOUR VISIT TO HADDON HALL
INFORMATION
Location: On the A6 between Matlock and Bakewell (two miles)
Visit: Visitors flock to view this historic masterpiece for themselves, which lies alongside the River Wye just south of Bakewell. Special events are held throughout the year.
Refreshments: The restaurant at the Hall, and there are also a wide range of cafes, pubs and restaurants in Bakewell to suit all tastes.
Bakewell: The picturesque old market town of Bakewell is set in an enviable location on the banks of the River Wye, in the heart of the Peak District. Visitors flock to Bakewell in the summer to shop and explore its many nooks and crannies. To admire its fine buildings or relax and feed the ducks by the River Wye’s lovely, clear, sparkling waters. There is more space in the winter, but on a sunny day, that is limited. It is particularly busy every Monday, market day when the stalls and the livestock market do brisk business. Until recently, the livestock market occupied a position near the centre of the town before moving to its new building on the other side of the river away from the town centre.
HADDON HALL
Mentioned in the Domesday Book, Haddon Hall is perhaps the most perfect example of a medieval manor house in the country, with parts of the house dating from the 12th century. Shortly after the Norman Conquest, it was in the hands of the Peveril family but forfeited to the Crown in 1153. Richard Vernon later acquired it through marriage, and his family was responsible for most of the building at Haddon apart from the Peveril Tower and part of the chapel. The Long Gallery is the only significant part which was added later.
According to a romantic legend, Dorothy Vernon eloped with John Manners in 1563. Her father forbade her to see Manners, who did not share his religion. When a large crowd gathered at the Hall for a ball her father gave, Dorothy took her chance and slipped away quietly. Fleeing through the gardens, down stone steps and over a footbridge to where Manners was waiting for her, they rode away into the night soon to be married.
Dorothy’s father died two years later, and the Hall has been in the Manners family’s hands ever since. The Hall lay dormant for over two hundred years from 1700 until the 1920s, when the 9th Duke and Duchess of Rutland (Manners) restored the house and gardens, making it habitable again. Since then, it has been the location for several major feature films and TV dramas, with the Hall and grounds playing host to no less than three versions of ‘Jane Eyre’. As well as screen credits for ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Pride & Prejudice’, ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ and ‘The Princess Bride.’
