Things to See
Local Architecture
Hardwick Hall
Close by is Hardwick Hall, built in the 1590s by ‘Bess of Hardwick’, the second most powerful woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I. The Hall, and even its original tapestries and textiles, have survived unaltered for four centuries and are now opened to the public by the National Trust. Find out more…
Near the original estate water-mill, still in operation and open to visitors, is the Hardwick Inn, also built in the 16th century, probably by the masons who built the Hall.
Bolsover Castle
Hardwick Hall was constructed by a local mason and architect John Smythson, whose son Robert designed and built Bolsover Castle further down the valley of the Doe Lea. The Smythsons’ brought ‘symmetry and light’ to English architecture and established a whole new style of building between the Spanish Armada and the English Civil War.
Chatsworth
Bolsover Castle belonged to the Cavendish family whose family seat is not far away at Chatsworth.
It was the home of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, the first woman scientist ever to attend a meeting of the Royal Society.
Literary Connections
D. H. Lawrence
Teversal Manor House, close to the Manor Farm has a connection to D. H. Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, and the village is believed to be the setting for the novel. Virginia Woolf stayed here as a guest of the Carnarvon family, who still own Highclere Castle in Hampshire, the setting for ‘Downton Abbey’.
Lord Byron & Ada, Countess of Lovelace
Lord Byron, celebrity romantic poet of the early 19th century, handsome, glamorous, ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ lived not far away at Newstead Abbey, now open to visitors. His daughter Ada, Countess of Lovelace was a mathematician and founder of scientific computing in the Victorian period.