HARDWICK HALL

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, is one

of the most significant Elizabethan

country houses in England. In

common with architect Robert

Smythson's other works at both

Longleat House and Wollaton Hall,

Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest

examples of the English

interpretation of the Renaissance

style of architecture, which came

into fashion when it was no longer

thought necessary to fortify one's

home

Hardwick Hall is situated on a hilltop between Chesterfield and

Mansfield, overlooking the Derbyshire countryside. The

house was designed for Bess of Hardwick, Countess of

Shrewsbury and ancestress of the Dukes of Devonshire, by

Robert Smythson in the late 16th century and remained in that

family until it was handed over to HM Treasury in lieu of Estate

Duty in 1956. The Treasury transferred the house to the

National Trust in 1959

Hardwick is a conspicuous

statement of the wealth and

power of Bess of Hardwick,

who was the richest woman in

England after Queen Elizabeth

I herself. It was one of the first

English houses where the great

hall was built on an axis

through the centre of the house

rather than at right angles to

the entrance

Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor

(probably 1661 – 25

March 1736) was a

British architect born in

Nottinghamshire,

probably in East

Drayton or Ragnall.[

Nicholas Hawksmoor's St

George-in-the-East, built

1714-29

The West Towers,

Westminster Abbey Hawksmoor was born in

Nottinghamshire in 1661,

into a yeoman farming

family, almost certainly in

East Drayton or Ragnall,

Nottinghamshire. On his

death he was to leave

property at nearby Ragnall,

Dunham and a house and

land at Great Drayton St Alfege Greenwich

03 the Royal Hospital,

London, 1702