Haddon Hall - History

History

The origins of the hall date to the 11th century. William Peverel, illegitimate son of William the Conqueror, held the manor of Nether Haddon in 1087, when the survey which resulted in the Domesday Book was undertaken. Though it was never a castle, the manor of Haddon was protected by a wall after a licence to build one was granted in 1194. Sir Richard de Vernon acquired the manor by his early 13th century marriage to the Haddon heiress. His son, Sir William Vernon, was a High Sheriff of Lancashire and Chief Justice of Cheshire. Prominent family members include Sir Richard Vernon (1390–1451), also a High Sheriff, MP and Speaker of the House of Commons. His son Sir William was Constable of England and succeeded him as Treasurer of Calais and MP for Derbyhire and Staffordshire; his grandson Sir Henry Vernon KB (1441–1515) Governor and Treasurer to Arthur, Prince of Wales, married Anne Talbot daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury and rebuilt Haddon Hall.

Sir George Vernon (c. 1503 – August 31, 1565) had two daughters, Margaret and Dorothy. Dorothy married John Manners, the second son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland in 1563. Sir George supposedly disapproved of the union, possibly because the Manners were Protestants, and the Vernons were Catholics, or possibly because the second son of an earl had uncertain financial prospects. According to legend, Sir George forbade John Manners from courting the famously beautiful and amiable Dorothy and forbade his daughter from seeing Manners. Shielded by the crowd during a ball given at Haddon Hall by Sir George in 1563, Dorothy slipped away and fled through the gardens, down stone steps and over a footbridge where Manners was waiting for her, and they rode away to be married. If indeed the elopement happened, the couple were soon reconciled with Sir George, as they inherited the estate on his death two years later. Their grandson, also John Manners of Haddon, inherited the Earldom in 1641, on the death of his distant cousin, George, the 7th Earl of Rutland, whose estates included Belvoir Castle.

That John Manners' son, also John, the 9th Earl, when made 1st Duke of Rutland in 1703, moved to Belvoir Castle, and his heirs used Haddon Hall very little, so it lay almost in its unaltered 16th-century condition, as it had been when it passed in 1567 by marriage to the Manners family. In the 1920s, another John Manners, 9th Duke of Rutland realised its importance and began a lifetime of meticulous restoration, with his restoration architect Harold Brakspear. The current medieval and Tudor Haddon includes small sections of the 11th-century structure, but mostly comprises additional chambers and ranges added by the successive generations of the Peverel, Avenel, Vernon and Manners families. Major construction was carried out at various stages between the 13th and the 17th centuries. The banqueting hall (with minstrels' gallery), kitchens and parlour date from 1370 and the St. Nicholas Chapel was completed in 1427. For generations, whitewash concealed and protected their pre-Reformation frescoes. There is a 16th-century Long Gallery.

The 9th Duke created the walled topiary garden adjoining the stable-block cottage, with clipped heraldic devices of the boar's head and the peacock, emblematic of the Vernon and Manners families. Haddon Hall remains in the Manners family to the present day and is occupied by Lord Edward Manners, brother of the 11th Duke of Rutland.