Sunday morning, we pack up reluctantly to leave by 11am. Breakfast is a delicious frittata, sausage and bacon, coffee, toast and Briony’s homemade jam. Then we make some raspberry jam, and Briony (who is the jam expert) gives me detailed instructions. I may attempt this at home with Madeleine! We had one last short walk with Briony and the dogs and we depart Staithe house. The Garmin in doing us well (thanks to Yalek Ho who lent this to us), and we have a 3.5 hour drive to The Hollow outside Bakewell. We drive through beautiful countryside, especially as we get closer to the Peak district and the National Park. Rolling green hills with stone walls climbing up and around at all angles, sheep and cows grazing everywhere, the sun poking in and out. We stop to visit the famous Haddon Hall (famous to anyone who has ever done or attended Revels, at least) and more on this below. We drive through Bakewell to Little Longstone, the tiny hamlet where The Hollow is located.
The Hollow is quite beautiful, a very old stone house which looks out over the Peak District and a gorgeous garden. Our room is spacious, bright and airy with a stunning view. Because a christening party is underway, they are closed for tea and inner, so we go to the Packhorse Pub, which is about 50 yards away. This feels like a true English pub, where people know each other and you order at the bar. We have two pints of local ales to start, one dark and one light, and a grilled sardine on roast red pepper sauce with toast, the largest sardine I’ve ever seen. Barney gets the local buffalo burger with bacon and Stilton, chips and salad. I got the roast venison with haricots vert and potato gratin, which was delicious. Very full we skipped dessert ( or rather pudding) to walk back in the total quiet of the village, to a good night’s sleep.
Haddon Hall, aka the Revels mothership, is a beautiful old manorial hall in Derbyshire, home to the Vernon and then the Manners families since the late 11th century. Built up over the years, it was restored by the 8th Duke of Rutland, played so well by Robert Sicular in our 2013 Revels show. His descendants still live there in some private apartments. The Duke's, not Robert Sicular's.
Approaching it on the hill you can see why they chose this spot with its commanding views. We crossed the bridge over the river Wye and walk through the main entrance.
Opening into the main entry area, we saw the clock tower and the ancient chapel.
The walls of the chapel have beautiful stencils and paintings, a lovely altarpiece, and tall stalls where the family sat. I sang part of a Tallis Ave Maria during the brief time it was empty (one of my traditions is to sing in churches or chapels or cathedrals we visit, something appropriate to the time and place).
We saw the old 11th century wall called King John’s Wall, mostly covered elsewhere but visible here. Then we entered the Great Hall or Banqueting Hall, hung with tapestries, with a huge fireplace and nearly 1000-year-old table on a small dais where the family would eat. It was easy to imagine a Medieval feast here complete with roast boar and musical entertainment. The boar is the symbol of the Manners family, so it turned out we’ll see them everywhere in the house. The year of the "new" ceiling is carved on the joist: 1624.
We continued into the enormous kitchen, comprised of the butchery, the bakery and the main prep and cooking area. The butchery has an original wood block used to carve meats and salt them for preservation.
The bakery has two ovens and long-handled implements to get pies in and out (almost everything sweet or savory could be baked in a pie, which explains the enormous number of savory pies we saw in the shop on Friday).
The main kitchen has several counters for food preparation, a fireplace for boiling meats, a huge pot over a fire where soups and vegetables were boiled to pieces, and the roasting fireplace.
This last fireplace has a huge spit which was turned by dogs call turnspits, with short powerful legs, which ran in a wheel that turned the spit. The dogs would run for about an hour each and then get a break, they apparently knew when their hour was up and they’d jump off!
We went up into the more private areas of the house. First, a magnificent dining room with side sitting area, dark paneling and lots of carvings and ceiling pairings of dogs, boars, and the Tudor rose.
Upstairs we entered a large bright salon, with a piano, portraits of Lady Dorothy Manners (the one who ran off to marry John Manners in the 14th century) and Katherine Manners, wife of the 8th Duke who restored the house.
Finally we entered the Gallery, a stunning long paneled hall which was the basis for the 2013 show set. It had only one painting over the giant fireplace, with scones coated in silver with the family coat of arms.
The views were amazing, and the stained glass was unique: rippled in waves, which at first we thought was just age and sagging, then we realized was was the actual pattern. When seen from the outside, the ripples formed stripes of dark and light areas.
We then entered another smaller hall which led to a set of rooms for the Duke and for special guests. Each room has an enormous fireplace with elaborate carved mantles.
Finally, we went into the gardens, which are on several levels. The upper garden has roses and arbors and beautiful views of the whole upper house.
The middle garden has shaped hedges with flowers everywhere, and a large stone staircase descends to the lower garden.
A large walkway circles the garden with more beautiful views. Back inside the entry we go to the inner yard, where a Tudor historical group in costumes is doing craft and armaments demonstrations.
We met up with the ticket seller from earlier in the day, an older man named Adrian Prentice who told the story of being an extra in the filming of “The Princess Bride” which was made here 25 years ago. It has also been the site of many films, starting in huge 1930s, through the recent version of Pride and Prejudice.
We both enjoyed Haddon Hall, a beautiful structure reflecting the architecture of many eras, a manor not intended to be highly defensive but the home of an aristocratic family. None of the floors were flat, even some of the walls and windows were no longer plumb, but then again, it has stood for almost 1,000 years, so it’s doing pretty well.
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