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Chatsworth Ideas

Since 1549

A short history of Chatsworth

Five centuries of one family on one site, told in the dates that matter and the people who built what you walk through.

Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of Bakewell and 9 miles (14 km) west of Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the Cavendish family since 1549. It stands on the east bank of the River Derwent, across from hills between the Derwent and Wye valleys, amid parkland backed by wooded hills that rise to heather moorland.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Timeline

  1. 1549

    Sir William Cavendish and his wife Bess of Hardwick buy the Chatsworth estate.

  2. 1553–1560s

    Bess begins and completes the first house on the site, a courtyard house facing east.

  3. 1569–1584

    Mary, Queen of Scots is held at Chatsworth on several occasions under the custody of the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, Bess’s fourth husband. Queen Mary’s Bower in the park is named for her.

  4. 1687–1707

    The 1st Duke of Devonshire rebuilds the house side by side, wing by wing, in the baroque style; the Cascade (1696, rebuilt 1701), the Canal Pond (1702) and the Cascade House by Thomas Archer (1703) date from this campaign.

  5. 1755–1764

    The 4th Duke has Capability Brown remodel the park, sweeps away the formal gardens and the old village, and has James Paine build the bridge (1762) and the stables.

  6. 1774

    The 5th Duke marries Georgiana Spencer, the celebrated Duchess of the film.

  7. 1811–1858

    The 6th (“Bachelor”) Duke builds the North Wing and, with his head gardener Joseph Paxton, creates the Emperor Fountain (1843), the Rock Garden (from 1842), the Great Conservatory and the rebuilt village of Edensor.

  8. 1920

    The Great Conservatory, Paxton’s glasshouse that inspired the Crystal Palace, is demolished; the maze (1962) now stands on its footprint.

  9. 1939–1946

    Penrhos College, a girls’ school, occupies the house for the war.

  10. 1950

    The 10th Duke dies; death duties of 80% force the sale of works of art and of Hardwick Hall to the nation.

  11. 1959

    The 11th Duke and Duchess (Deborah Mitford) move back into the house and begin its modern revival as a visitor attraction.

  12. 1981

    Chatsworth House Trust is formed to hold the house, garden and park in charitable trust; the family rents its private rooms from the Trust.

  13. 2004–2018

    A £32 million programme restores the exterior, roofs, stonework and interiors, the largest works since the 6th Duke.

Questions people ask

Who owns Chatsworth House?

The house, its contents, garden and park are held by Chatsworth House Trust, a registered charity set up in 1981. The Cavendish family, headed by the Duke of Devonshire, lives in the private apartments as tenants of the Trust and continues to run the wider estate.

When was Chatsworth House built?

The first house was begun by Bess of Hardwick in 1553. The house you see today is largely the 1st Duke’s rebuilding of 1687–1707, with the North Wing added by the 6th Duke between 1820 and 1840.

Is Chatsworth House National Trust?

No. Chatsworth is independent of the National Trust and English Heritage, which is why their memberships give no discount.

How big is the Chatsworth estate?

The park is about 1,000 acres (400 hectares) inside a wall 1.75 miles long, with a 105-acre garden. The wider Chatsworth estate across Derbyshire and beyond runs to some 35,000 acres.

Related

Sources