Short Trips -- Hardwick Hall

Our brief, late summer appears to be over here (which, interestingly, all of the newspapers referred to as "Indian Summer," despite the fact that the only Indians here actually come from India). We are back to typical English weather. It rains only occasionally, but it is so constantly damp -- the air is just saturated -- that the pavement never dries between rains, and when outside, it feels as if it's almost, but not quite misting all the time. The sun shines occasionally, but not usually long enough to dry things out. They tell us to get used to it, because it will be this way until spring, only colder.

To take advantage of what half decent fall weather we have left, we've mapped out some short, half-day weekend trips by car to places near Nottingham. Since the car can seat five, we invite three students to accompany us on each. We suspect that some will not want to spend extra time with the old folks, while others will be eager to explore. So these are optional, and the first three to sign up for each trip get to go.

New Hall as viewed from the ruins of Old Hall

Last weekend's destination was Hardwick Hall. Just a half hour up the road, this house was built by the same family that built Chatsworth (see below). Indeed, the construction was instigated by the same woman, Elizabeth Hardwick Barlow Cavendish St. Loe Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1521-1608), known as Bess of Hardwick for short. She was married four times (which is how she got so many names and titles), beginning at age 12, to a more wealthy and titled husband each time.

Mary and a student read about the tapestries

By the time she was 40 and three times a widow, as the second wealthiest woman in England, behind only her pal, Queen Elizabeth I, Bess had the cash to build opulent homes. Chatsworth was one, which stayed in the family descendent from her second husband, the Dukes of Devonshire. Hardwick Hall stayed with descendants of the fourth husband, the Earls of Shrewsbury. That family had other homes and put no money into remodeling Hardwick, so it remains essentially as it was in Elizabethan times!

There were two homes at this site: Old Hall, Bess's birthplace, which was left to deteriorate into a ruin, and New Hall, which is in excellent condition and was lived in by one of her descendants until 1960. As was customary in Elizabethan times, the walls are covered nearly everywhere with fine tapestries, most still in pretty good shape for 400 years of hanging!

Hardwick Hall has gained note more recently as film site for Malfoy Manor in the Harry Potter films. The filmmakers added a number of special effects to make the place appear far more sinister than it is.