We finally got round to visiting Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire the other day. You can see it from miles away. It's basically just giant walls of glass towering over the trees (there's an old local saying that it's "more glass than wall" and it's not wrong).
The walk up to the entrance from the car park gives you a pretty good view of the front against the sky. If you look up at the very top of the building, you can see the massive stone letters "ES" above the windows. They stand for Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick, and her initials appear all over the building, making it very clear whose house it was.
One of the things that caught my attention was the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, surrounded by the wall tapestries. Each room seemed to have something different to look at, from the old furniture and decorations to the enormous fireplaces and other details that have survived over the years.
The bedchambers were my favourite part. There were massive four poster beds with green velvet drapes that looked like something straight out of a period drama. Standing in there, all I could think about was how freezing it must have been in a house like this in the middle of winter back in the late 1500s!
Down in the old kitchens, they've got rows of polished copper pans laid out.
Once we'd finished looking around inside, we headed back outside into the gardens. We almost walked right past a tiny stone doorway hidden under red roses.
A little further along the lawn, we found a couple of deckchairs tucked under the fruit trees.
Before heading home, we spent a few minutes watching a school of fish moving through the clear water of the estate pond. It was a peaceful way to finish the visit.
Hardwick Hall has a lot to offer, from the history and architecture inside the Hall to the gardens and little details around the grounds. I'm glad we finally made the trip and we'll probably have to go back again when the gardens are looking different.
