Chatsworth House


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Chatsworth House

Chatsworth House is a large country house at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England 3½ miles north east of Bakewell (GB Grid SK260700). It is the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, and has been home to their family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.

Standing on the east bank of the River Derwent, Chatsworth looks across to the low hills that divide the Derwent and Wye valleys. The house is set in expansive parkland, and backed by wooded, rocky hills rising to heather moorland. Chatsworth's garden is one of the most famous in England. The house contains a unique collection of priceless

Chatsworth House across the River Derwent, with the Hunting Tower visible above


paintings, furniture, Old Master drawings, neoclassical sculpture, books and other artefacts. Chatsworth has been selected as the United Kingdom's favourite country house several times. History Outline of the structure of the present building

Chatsworth House has evolved over the centuries, shaped by generations of changing technologies and tastes. The main block of the house was re-built by the 1st Duke between 1687 and 1707, on the site of Bess of Hardwick's original Tudor mansion. The long north wing was added by the 6th Duke in the early nineteenth century. The house is built on sloping ground, lower on the north and west sides than on the south and east.

Many more structures stand in Chatsworth's grounds: There are two surviving Elizabethan buildings, the Hunting Tower and Queen Mary's Bower. Flora's Temple and the 1st Duke's Greenhouse survive from the 1690s. The Stable block and bridge were built by James Paine in the 1760s. Joseph Paxton's Conservative Wall and other glasshouses date from the C19th. The 11th Duke and Duchess added the Display Greenhouse in 1970.

The River Derwent, Bridge and House at Chatsworth


	Early Chatsworth There has been a house on the present site since the 1550s, but Chatsworth's history dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. The name could be a corruption of "Chetelsourde" meaning "Chetel's manor". Chetel was deposed after the Norman Conquest and Chatsworth ceased to be a large estate, until the 15th century when it was acquired by the Leche family who owned property nearby. They may have enclosed the first park at Chatsworth and built a house on the high ground in what is now the south-eastern part of the garden. In 1549 they sold all their property in the area to Sir William Cavendish, Treasurer of the King's Chamber and then husband of the now better-known Bess of Hardwick. Bess was the daughter of a Derbyshire squire, John of Hardwick, and persuaded her husband to sell his property in Suffolk to settle in her native county.

Bess began to build their new house in 1553. They selected a site near the river, which was controlled by digging a series of reservoirs which doubled as fish ponds. The house was on the same site as the present main block and had the same quadrangle layout, approximately 170 feet (52 m) from north to south and 190 feet (58 m) from east to west, with a large central courtyard. The front entrance was on the west front, which was embellished with four towers or turrets, and the great hall in the medieval tradition was on the east side of the courtyard, where the Painted Hall remains the focus of the house to this day. Sir William died in 1557, but Bess finished the house in the 1560s and lived there with her fourth husband, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. In 1568 Shrewsbury was entrusted with the custody of Mary, Queen of Scots, and brought his prisoner to Chatsworth

The west front of the Elizabethan Chatsworth.


	several times from 1570 onwards. She lodged in the apartment now known as the Queen of Scots rooms, on the top floor above the great hall, facing onto the inner courtyard. Bess died in 1608 and Chatsworth passed to her second son William Cavendish, who was created 1st Earl of Devonshire in 1618. The 1st Duke's Chatsworth

The South Front of Chatsworth from Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus.


	The 4th Earl of Devonshire, who was to become the 1st Duke in 1694, was an advanced Whig and was forced to retire to Chatsworth during the reign of James II (1685–88). This occasioned a rebuilding of the house, beginning in 1687. He initially planned to reconstruct only the south wing, so decided to retain the Elizabethan courtyard plan, despite the fact that this layout was becoming increasingly unfashionable. The south and east fronts were built under the direction of William Talman and were complete by 1696. The 1st Duke's Chatsworth was a key building in the development of English Baroque architecture. According to the architectural historian Sir John Summerson, "It inaugurates an artistic revolution which is the counterpart of the political revolution in which the


	Earl was so prominent a leader." The design of the south front was revolutionary for an English house, with no attics or hipped roof, but instead two main storeys supported by a rusticated basement. The facade is dramatic and sculptural with ionic columns and a heavy entablature and balustrade. The existing heavy and angular stone stairs from the first floor down to the garden are a C19th replacement of an elegant curved double staircase. The east front is the quietest of the four on the main block. Like the south front it is unusual in that it has an even number of bays and no centrepiece. The emphasis is placed on the end bays, each highlighted by double pairs of pilasters, of which the inner pairs project outwards.

The west and north fronts may have been the work of Thomas Archer, possibly in collaboration with the Duke himself. The west front has nine wide bays with a central pediment supported by four columns and pilasters to the other bays. Due to the slope of the site this front is taller than the south front. It is deceptively large; many other nine bay three storey facades are little more than half as wide and tall. The west front is very lively with much carved stonework, and the window frames are highlighted with gold leaf which catches the setting sun. The north front was the last to be built. It presented a challenge, as the north end of the west front projected nine feet (3 m) further than the north end of the east front. This problem was overcome by building a slightly curved facade to distract the eye. The north front was altered in the nineteenth century when the long north wing was attached to the north-east corner of the house. The attic windows on this side are the only ones visible on the exterior of

The West Front of Chatsworth from Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus.


	the house and are set into the main facade, rather than into a visible roof. Those in the curved section were originally oval, but are now rectangular like those in the end sections. The facades to the central courtyard were also rebuilt by the 1st Duke. The courtyard was larger then than it is now, as there were no corridors on the western side and the northern and southern sides only had enclosed galleries on the first floor (second floor in American English) with open galleries below. In the 19th century new accommodation was built on these three sides on all three levels. The only surviving baroque facade is that on the eastern side, where five bays of the original seven remain, and are largely as built. There are carved trophies by Samuel Watson, a Derbyshire craftsman who did much work at Chatsworth in stone, marble and wood, at first-floor level, and very large pedimented windows at second floor level. A richly appointed Baroque suite of state rooms open one from another in an enfilade across the south front. Other surviving interiors from this period include the chapel and the painted hall.


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