16th century Designed by
Robert Smythson in the late 16th century, Hardwick Hall is on a hilltop between
Chesterfield and
Mansfield overlooking the
Derbyshire countryside. It was ordered by
Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury and ancestress of the
Dukes of Devonshire, and owned by her descendants until the mid-twentieth century. Bess of Hardwick was the richest woman in England after Queen
Elizabeth I, and her house was conceived to be a conspicuous statement of her wealth and power. The windows are exceptionally large and numerous at a time when glass was a luxury, leading to the saying, "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." In order to give more scope for huge windows without weakening the exterior walls, the Hall's chimneys are built into the internal walls of the structure. The house's design also demonstrated new concepts not only in domestic architecture, but also of a more modern way in which life was led within a great house. Hardwick was one of the first English houses where the
great hall was built on an axis through the centre of the home, rather than at right angles to the entrance. Each of the three main storeys has a higher ceiling than the one below, indicative of the importance of the rooms' occupants. A wide, winding, stone staircase leads up to the
state rooms on the second floor, which include one of the largest
long galleries in any English house. A tapestry-hung
great chamber with a spectacular plaster
frieze illustrating hunting scenes has been little altered. A decorator, John "Paynter", used chalk and
size made from glovers' offcuts. Pigments including blue
bice,
verdigris,
massicot, and
vermilion were bought in 1599. John varnished and coloured the panelling of the great chamber, and gilded some details. His paintwork supplemented and mended the cloth hangings, and he painted cloth hangings in imitation of tapestry. The architecture was influential, and in March 1608
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who was planning new buildings at
Hatfield House, asked Bess's son-in-law,
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, for "any rowgh drawght of Hardwick". Bess was born in her father's manor house. Hardwick Old Hall, today a ruin beside the newer hall, was built on the site of this older building. Each of her four marriages had brought her greater wealth, and Hardwick Hall was but one of her many homes.
17th century Following Bess's death in 1608, the house passed to her son
William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire. His great-grandson,
William, was created 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694. The Devonshires made
Chatsworth, another of Bess's great houses, their principal seat. Hardwick thus was relegated to the role of an occasional retreat for hunting and sometime
dower house. As a secondary home, it escaped the attention of modernisers and received few alterations after its completion. The famed political philosopher
Thomas Hobbes died at the Hall in December 1679. For the previous four or five years, Hobbes had lived at Chatsworth. Hobbes had been a friend of the family since 1608 when he first tutored William Cavendish. After his death, many of Hobbes' manuscripts were found at Chatsworth House.
19th century From the early 19th century, the antique atmosphere of Hardwick Hall was consciously preserved. A low, 19th-century
service wing is fairly inconspicuous at the rear. In 1844,
William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire published a book called
Handbook to Chatsworth and Hardwick. It was privately printed and provided a history of the Cavendish family's two estates.
20th century Second World War On 31 August 1941, the decision was made to form the
1st Parachute Brigade under
Brigadier Richard Gale at Hardwick. Army Northern Command leased 53 acres of the estate to establish a camp of red-brick huts with training areas. It included a gymnasium, a cookhouse, cinema and medical facility. Hardwick Camp then became the new nucleus for parachute training and physical selection for airborne forces. On 15 December 1941, the
2nd Parachute Battalion and
3rd Parachute Battalion formed at Hardwick with the 1st Air Troop
Royal Engineers, the first airborne Royal Engineers unit, and a skeleton
Royal Signals Squadron. The camp was southwest of the Hall and consisted of a
parachute jump tower, assault courses and trapeze in-flight swing training structures. When pre-jump training was successfully completed, the recruits that passed out were required to speed-march approximately to join the parachute course at
RAF Ringway. A tethered barrage balloon was also installed on 1 November 1941 to provide refresher training for qualified parachutists and to supplement descents made from the jump tower. In 1942, when the 1st Parachute Brigade moved from Hardwick to
Bulford Garrison, an Airborne Forces Depot was formed at Hardwick from the units left behind. It started as an unofficial establishment but was created as a properly organized unit, training and holding recruits before they went to the Parachute Training School, as well as rehabilitating the temporary unfit from injuries. The
War Office approved a War Establishment for the depot on 25 December 1942, appointing Lt Col W. Giles
MC (
Ox and Bucks) as its first commanding officer. The depot was given an extended role and consisted of a depot company, a pre-parachute training company, a battle school, a holding company and an airfield detachment, which was stationed at
No.1 Parachute Training School (No.1 PTS), RAF Ringway. During this period, all pre-jump ground training was moved from Hardwick to Ringway. In March 1944, the Battle School closed, and the Holding Unit was moved to nearby
Clay Cross, while a new preliminary Battle School was set up at
Dore and Totley. The Selection Company and Depot Administrative Unit remained at Hardwick. The Treasury transferred the house to the
National Trust in 1959. The Duchess remained in occupation of the house until her death in 1960. Having done much, personally, to conserve the textiles in the house as well as reinstating the traditional rush matting, she was its last occupant. ==Today==