Haddon Hall
Haddon Hall is the finest example of a mediaeval manor house currently in existence in England. The hall is one of the seats of the Dukes of Rutland and lies alongside the River Wye, just south of Bakewell.
The Rutlands used the hall very little in the 18th and 19th centuries, so it was almost unaltered since the end of the 16th century when the 9th Duke realised its importance and began restoration in the 1920s.
The house is in a beautiful location and is very well preserved - even down to the kitchens straight from the 17th century -
so it looks magnificent.
The highlight is a glorious 14th Century Banqueting Hall complete with minstrels' gallery
but there is also a fine oak panelled room with minature portraits of Henry VII and his Queen, a Tudor period Long Gallery
(from which Dorothy Vernon is said to have eloped with her lover, Lord Edward Manners), and some fine gardens.
The entrance courtyard still looks perfectly medieval and opening off it is the chapel, with a beautiful carved alabaster retablo and pre-Reformation frescos which have been revealed from beneath the whitewash which hid them for centuries.