25 July 2009: Hardwick Hall

We visited the beautiful home of Bess of Hardwick today. Bess, or the Countess of Shrewsbury as she was in the later part of her life, lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and through a series of well connected marriages and a good business sense she rose to be one of the most powerful women of her time, second only to the Queen. She built Chatsworth House first and then went on to build this splendid and for the time, quite contemporary Hall that was fit to entertain royalty. Her old ancestral home is just a ruin now (run by English Heritage) as many of the materials were taken to build the new Hall, and it sits alongside the magnificant "new" building. The views are spectacular and we had a wonderful day exploring the two buildings and finding out about Bess' extraordinary life.