We have been planning the next few months before we return to Australia to do as much as we can in Europe as it is so cheap to travel from the UK to Europe. We even have a trip to Egypt in the pipeline. However there was one more trip to Buxton needed to buy wool. So it was on Friday July 17 we headed to Buxton and on our return we visited Tissington Hall. The Hall is an early 17th-century Jacobean mansion house situated at Tissington, near Ashbourne Derbyshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Wikipedia gives the following history;
“The FitzHerberts, descended from the Norman family of Norbury Hall, acquired Tissington by the marriage of Nicholas FitzHerbert (the second son of John FitzHerbert of Somersal Herbert) to Ciceley Frauncis, heiress of Tissington, in 1465.
The old moated manor at Tissington was replaced with the new mansion in 1609 by Francis FitzHerbert and remains the home of the FitzHerbert family. The current occupant is Sir Richard Ranulph FitzHerbert Bart. Both Francis FitzHerbert and his son (Sir) John served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire, a post that circulated among the county families.”
Tissington Hall:
“It is the hall that makes Tissington Hall unusual. It is one of a small group of compact Derbyshire gentry’ houses in which a central hall runs through the house from front to back. Nicholas Cooper surmises that the unusual, progressive character may be due to the influence of lodges (he counted some fifty emparked estates in Saxton’s map of the shire, of 1570) and the grand example of a through-hall at Hardwick. Behind a two-storey enclosed entrance porch the hall is entered at the centre of one end. On the left are two parlours separated by a stair hall, on the right a kitchen and buttery. Corner towers on the garden front, now linked by the additional upper floor above the gallery range, provide further rooms.
A rococo gothic fireplace in the house follows a published design by Batty Langley. The Hall is open to the public at specified times of the year and is available for commercial and private functions.” Unfortunately it was closed the day we called.
The estate includes from memory 3 farms and 40 cottages. The Hall is noted for well dressing. The week after Ascension in the Christian calendar of religious events, the residents of Tissington dress the 5 wells on the estate with placards carry a religious message. The Vicar of Tissington Church (there are two one Anglican and the other Methodist) conducts a service then the congregation go from well to well for a blessing and give thanks for the abundant water. The source of this ancient practice is not known.
Photos of two of the wells;
We walked and then drove around the village, visiting the gift shop the café and the sweet shop. There is also a butchery selling estate lamb, a nursery and a kindergarten. This really looked like the place where time has stood still but I expect that it has only survived because behind the scenes there is some clever management.
It is only 30 minutes from Ashbourne which is 15 minutes from Derby – quite accessible.
glendon1954 