By the Wye, in Derbyshire, Haddon Hall is reckoned one of the best-preserved medieval and Tudor manors in England — because it was, for two centuries, forgotten and unmodified. Its great Elizabethan gallery and its love legend make it an intact jewel of the English Renaissance.
From the Vernons to the Manners
Under the Tudors, Haddon passed from the Vernons to the Manners by a marriage. Sir George Vernon, the last great master of the place (died 1565), had for heir only his daughter Dorothy Vernon; in 1563, she married John Manners, younger son of the 1st Earl of Rutland. By this union, the manor entered the Manners family (future Dukes of Rutland), who own it still. It is to the Manners that the finest Renaissance arrangements of the house are owed, notably its magnificent Elizabethan Long Gallery, with its panelling and its wrought plaster ceiling, lit by great windows.
A manor frozen in time
The singularity of Haddon is to have come through the centuries almost unchanged. When the Manners made Belvoir Castle their principal residence, Haddon was neglected and ceased to be modernised — preserved, like Cotehele in Cornwall, by the very indifference of its owners. One finds there, intact, a medieval Great Hall with a minstrels' gallery, a chapel with old wall paintings, terraced gardens — an ensemble of rare authenticity, which makes Haddon a prized film set and a condensed image of the English seigneurial dwelling. To see: the Long Gallery (Tudor panelling and ceiling), the Great Hall and its minstrels' gallery, the chapel of St Nicholas, the terraced gardens.
Did you know?
Legend has it that Dorothy Vernon fled from Haddon one evening of a ball, in 1563, to join her lover John Manners: crossing the gardens, rushing down a stone stair and crossing a bridge in the night, she is said to have escaped the family's watch to marry him in secret. The story, romanticised much later, is not proven — but 'Dorothy Vernon's' stair and bridge can still be visited, and the tale has made Haddon a place of love and escape.
Notes
Haddon Hall lies near Bakewell, Derbyshire; house and gardens open to the public seasonally. Hours to check.
Quiz
- How did Haddon pass to the Manners?
- By Dorothy Vernon's marriage to John Manners (1563)
- By a conquest
- By a royal purchase
- Why is Haddon so well preserved?
- Neglected for Belvoir, it was not modernised
- It was rebuilt in the nineteenth century
- It was never inhabited
- What does the legend of Dorothy Vernon tell?
- Her nocturnal elopement to marry John Manners
- A battle
- A hidden treasure