English Heritage

English Heritage and the National Trust are working together to give you access to both the great mansions created by Bess of Hardwick, one of the richest and most formidable women of Elizabethan England.

Hardwick Old Hall was built on the site of Bess’s birthplace. Today, you can climb through four floors of Hardwick Old Hall’s towering roofless shell, and admire the hall’s 400-year-old plaster panels, which were the finest of their age.

Nearby stands Bess’s even grander, more spectacular and still complete ‘New Hall’. Striking

for its pioneering architecture, Hardwick New Hall is renowned for its astonishingly well-preserved Elizabethan interiors and textiles. You can also explore fine gardens and Grade I-listed parkland.