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Hardwick Old Hall: east wing

Hardwick Old Hall is the ruin of an imposing Elizabethan mansion built around the core of an older medieval manor house, which had been the birthplace of Bess of Hardwick in 1527. Bess gained her wealth through a series of four advantageous marriages, the last of which was to the Earl of Shrewsbury. This marriage was tempestuous and she separated from the Earl in1584, moving back to her old home at Hardwick. The manor house was not grand enough for the Countess and her household so she began a series of changes and enlargements in about 1587.

In spite of the many changes, Bess was dissatisfied with the overall haphazard effect of the building, the result of hurried planning. In 1590 she began a more ambitious residence nearby, the present Hardwick Hall, into which she moved in 1597. The Old Hall was retained to be used by her household but was eventually abandoned in the eighteenth century and left to fall into ruins.

The east wing is just a shell. The double column of staggered windows in the centre of the remaining wall once lit a grand staircase which gave access to all the floors. To the left, on the top floor are the remains of the Forest Great Chamber, so named because it has plasterwork over the fireplace, all that remains of a frieze round the room, which shows a forest scene with deer. This was inspired by a similar high relief plaster design at Chatsworth, (built for Bess in the 1550s by her second husband, Sir William Cavendish of Suffolk), and was developed further into the plaster frieze in the great chamber in the new Hardwick Hall. This plasterwork would have been brightly painted, and together with leather wall hangings below the frieze and spectacular views from the large windows this must have been a most impressive room.

Together with Bess's grand new Hall the site is owned by the National Trust but the Old Hall is maintained and managed by English Heritage.