Description

SK 46 SE PARISH OF AULT HUCKNALL HARDWICK PARK
10/6
11.7.51 Hardwick Old Hall (formerly listed
GV as Old Hardwick Hall ruins)

I

Country house, now derelict. Owned by the National Trust and managed by English
Heritage. Early C16 and 1587-90. Coursed rubble sandstone and ashlar. Roofless.
Remains of coped gables and parapets. Four and five storeys over a basement storey.
Chamfered plinth. Irregular plan and elevations. South elevation of ten bays. The
two bays on the left project and have a plain parapet. A single and a 3-light
mullioned window to the basement; two cross windows above and above again, and two
3-light windows above again with three transoms. Taller parapetted bay to the right
has above the basement five 3-light windows with one and two transoms. Two
irregular gabled bays set back to the right have cross windows and 3-light windows
with transoms. The second gable has an external stack. To the right is a projecting
parapetted and gabled bay with cross windows and 3-light mullioned and transomed
windows. Segmental relieving arches. Projecting range to the right has two square
bays with the remains of 3-light windows with transoms, the top storey with three
transoms. The north elevation is in its east parts completely ruinous. Four bays
virtually intact to the right, with a gable and a parapet. The basement floor has
two and 3-light mullioned windows, the two floors above have cross windows, and the
top floor has 3-light windows with two and three transoms. Chamfered coped walls
enclose a rectangular area to the north, and at the north east corner is a two storey
lodge; rendered, with quoins and a balustraded parapet. Three-light mullioned and
transomed windows to the ground floor and similar three and five-light windows
above. The plan of the Old Hall is significant in its revolutionary placing of the
hall across the house, at a right angle to the facade. The house had two full scale
great chambers and there are substantial remains of decorative plasterwork by
Abraham Smith.
Sources:Robert Smythson & the Elizabethan Country House by Mark Girouard, Yale
University Press 1983.

Listing NGR: SK4614863697

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530697

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)