Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Rough Heanor Manor

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Old Radburne Hall

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Old Walton Hall, Chesterfield

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Kirk Hallam

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Hoon Hall

Lost Houses

Lost Houses – Exeter House, Derby

February 6, 2016 Steve Orme

In the early 17th century, the West bank of the Derwent was becoming very sought after for gardens and suddenly Full Street and Cockpit Hill became fashionable places to live. Exeter House, No. 1, Full Street, was the house occupied for three days and two nights by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. Derby has had […]

Lost Houses – Castlefields

January 25, 2016 BrianSpencer

With heavy machinery at work and much building going up in the tract of land between the Railway Station and Traffic Street in Derby, the site of the most ambitious country house close to Derby will be developed for the second time since its demolition nearly 180 years ago. The area is now called Castleward […]

Lost Houses – Crich Manor House

December 10, 2015 Steve Orme

Crich is really rather a confusing place, not least in respect to its country houses. The descent of the manorial estate since Hubert Fitz Ralph, the Domesday proprietor has been something of a saga, and many of the subsequent lords were non-resident. This phenomenon certainly would have put paid to the original manor house, built, […]

Lost Houses – Oldcotes

October 31, 2015 BrianSpencer

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On the vast, exuberant and lavishly decorated monument in Derby Cathedral to Bess of Hardwick is an inscription, lauding the late Derbyshire grande dame, which includes the lines: ‘This most illustrious Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, built the houses of Chatsworth, Hardwick and Oldcotes, highly distinguished by their magnificence.’ In fact, this is only some of […]

Lost Houses – Hasland House

August 30, 2015 Alistair Plant

Hasland is one of the many outliers of the Manor of Chesterfield, and was long held by the ancient family of Linacre, under whom it was, in the 15th century, tenanted by a cadet branch of the Leakes of Sutton Scarsdale. Thomas Leake of Hasland, for instance, was Bess of Hardwick’s maternal grandfather. After the […]

Lost Houses – Barbrook Edensor

May 29, 2015 Alistair Plant

It is unfortunate that the first really substantial house that Sir Joseph Paxton built was knocked down in the early 1960s, for today, I suspect, it would be greatly valued as an early example of the architectural talents of this highly talented man. It was built for himself, was grade II listed, but, when it […]

Lost Houses – Abbot’s Hill House

April 30, 2015 Alistair Plant

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It is very difficult to imagine, when looking at Derby’s Babington Lane with its endless tail-backs of ’buses, that less than a century ago it was virtually rus in urbe: the countryside in town par excellence. Indeed, the last owner of Abbot’s Hill House, that stood for just on two centuries between Babington and Green […]

Lost Houses – Sutton Scarsdale

April 1, 2015 Alistair Plant

The Arkwright family always did things in a big way. After all, was not Richard Arkwright junior – the cotton entrepreneur Sir Richard’s only son – called the “Richest Commoner in England”? Young Richard had six sons and four had estates bestowed upon them, on which to put down roots, the exceptions being Richard, the […]

Lost Houses – Potlock House

February 26, 2015 Alistair Plant

Potlock – the name derives from Old English ‘potte’ (depression) and ‘lacu’ (stream) has had a long history. The site is crossed E-W by one of Derbyshire’s two Neolithic cursus monuments, huge communal enterprises of unknown utility, which are today only visible as crop marks and, in the case of this one, as a geophysics […]

Lost Houses – Stainsby House

January 6, 2015 Alistair Plant

Any reader who thinks I might have run out of substantial lost country houses to describe by now will be, I am afraid, mistaken. I may have been seduced into writing about some modest ones, but more substantial casualties are still unrecorded in this series. One of them is Stainsby House, Smalley, seat of the […]