More restoration work at Hardwick Hall

I recently wrote in Restoring Bess of Hardwick’s tapestries about the completion of the restoration of the tapestries in the Long Gallery at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. This is not the only scheme of restoration that has been carried out at Hardwick. 

Adjacent to the great house built in her last years by Bess of Hardwick are the substantial but roofless remains of her previous house, now known as Hardwick Old Hall. Much altered and extended by the Countess before she decided to build a completely new house it became guest and servant accommodation after the new house was built before being finally abandoned in the eighteenth century. Now cared for by English Heritage the important surviving plaster work friezes have recently undergone extensive conservation work and are now accessible to visitors.

The Derbyshire Times has an illustrated report about the scheme at Visit whole estate at historic Derbyshire stately home for the first time - with access to both Old Hall and New Hall at Hardwick