THE visitor to Radbourne Hall today must struggle to believe that they are standing barely four miles from the centre of Derby. Set within a landscape park, laid out from 1790 by William Emes, this magnificent 1740s building answers the popular ideal of a Palladian country house. No less unexpected is the fact that this secret and rather a magical place has recently undergone an award-winning restoration. In the process, its important historic interiors have been refreshed and the whole building revived as a 21st-century family home.
The present chatelaine of Radbourne, Lady Chichester, descends from the ChandosPole family, which can trace its connections with the estate back to the Middle Ages. In the mid 14th century, the soldier and founder member of the Order of the Garter, Sir John Chandos, began here—in the words of the antiquarian John Leland writing in the 1540s—‘a mighty large house of stone with a wonderful cost’. Work to it was interrupted by his death, however, leaving the ruins of the building standing ‘to a man’s height’. This house clearly was intended to replace an earlier residence close to the parish church. It was disparagingly judged by Leland to be ‘no great thing’, but, in fact, remained in occupation until the early 18th century.
Denne historien er fra March 09, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 09, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
