Haddon Hall is a country house situated on the River Wye near Bakewell, Derbyshire, England.

The origins of the house are from the 11th century, with additions at various stages between the 13th and the 17th centuries, latterly in the Tudor style. Shaped like a medieval manor house, it has been described as "the most complete and interesting house of its period".

Origins & History

The origins of the house date back to the 11th century, when William Peverel (1050-1114) held the manor of Haddon in 1087, the time when the registration that gave rise to the Domesday Book was made.

Although never a castle, Haddon's manor was protected by a wall after a license to build one was granted in 1194.

The residence passed into the hands of the Crown in 1153 and then passed into the hands of a tenant of the Peverels, the Avenell family.

Sir Richard de Vernon (1155-1215) acquired the manor in 1170 after his marriage to Avice Avenell (1155-1188), the daughter of William Avenell (1130-1210).

The Vernons built most of the hall, except for the Peveril Tower and part of the Chapel, which preceded them, and the Long Gallery, which was built in the 16th century.

Richard's son, Sir William Vernon (c.1195-c.1252), was a High Sheriff of Lancashire and Chief Justice of Cheshire.

Prominent later family members include Sir Richard Vernon (1390-1451), also a High Sheriff, MP and Speaker of the House of Commons. His son Sir William was Knight-Constable of England and succeeded him as Treasurer of Calais and MP for Derbyshire and Staffordshire; his grandson Sir Henry Vernon KB (1441-1515) Governor and Treasurer to Arthur, Prince of Wales, married Anne Talbot daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury and rebuilt Haddon Hall.

Sir George Vernon (c.1503-1565) had two daughters, Margaret and Dorothy. Dorothy married John Manners, the second son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland in 1563. Sir George supposedly disapproved of the union, possibly because the Manners were Protestants while the Vernons were Catholics, or possibly because the second son of an earl had uncertain financial prospects. According to legend, Sir George forbade John Manners from courting the famously beautiful and amiable Dorothy and forbade his daughter from seeing Manners.

Shielded by the crowd during a ball given at Haddon Hall by Sir George in 1563, Dorothy slipped away and fled through the gardens, down stone steps and over a footbridge where Manners was waiting for her, and they rode away to be married. If indeed the elopement happened, the couple were soon reconciled with Sir George, as they inherited the estate on his death two years later.

Their grandson, also John Manners of Haddon, inherited the Earldom in 1641, on the death of his distant cousin, George, the 7th Earl of Rutland, whose estates included Belvoir Castle. That John Manners' son was John, the 9th Earl, and was made 1st Duke of Rutland in 1703. He moved to Belvoir Castle, and his heirs used Haddon Hall very little, so it lay almost in its unaltered 16th-century condition, as it had been when it passed in 1567 by marriage to the Manners family.

In the 1920s, another John Manners, the 9th Duke of Rutland, realised its importance and began a lifetime of meticulous restoration, with his restoration architect Harold Brakspear.

The current medieval and Tudor hall includes small sections of the 11th-century structure, but it mostly comprises additional chambers and ranges added by the successive generations of the Vernon family.

Major construction was carried out at various stages between the 13th and the 16th centuries. The banqueting hall (with minstrels' gallery), kitchens and parlour date from 1370, and the St. Nicholas Chapel was completed in 1427. For generations, whitewash concealed and protected their pre-Reformation frescoes.

The 9th Duke created the walled topiary garden adjoining the stable-block cottage, with clipped heraldic devices of the boar's head and the peacock, emblematic of the Vernon and Manners families.

Today

Haddon Hall remains in the Manners family to the present day, and is occupied by Lord Edward Manners, brother of the 11th Duke of Rutland, since deciding in 2016 to relocate to the hall.

The house was Grade I listed in 1951 following the passing of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. The estate and gardens were separately listed at Grade I in 1984 on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

In 2011, the hall's foundations were identified as needing urgent repairs to mitigate potential damage to the ornate plaster ceiling and central bay of the Long Gallery, but the owners were unable to finance repairs.

In 2021, a £262,662 grant from English Heritage, together with an additional £50,000 from the Historic Houses Foundation, enabled works to be started.

This website is developed by Westcom, Ltd., and updated by Ezequiel Foster © 2019-2022.