Country Images Magazine North Edition November 2017 | Page 21
two-storey range parallel to the street in stone,
of nine bays, the central entrance being ensigned
by a large carved armorial panel and giving access
to a courtyard behind. Th ere were two doors
alternating with two ground fl oor three-light
stone mullioned windows either side of the
centre, with two-light windows above, providing
the accommodation of the four old women and
the warden. Flanking the courtyard were two
ranges at right angles to the front one, each of
four units in matching style, the roofs being
pitched and tiled. Each person had a parlour, a
kitchen and a bedroom above. Gardens led down
to the Derwent.
crowned, as before, by an armorial, in this case
the Duke’s. A fi ne wrought iron balustrade by
William Yates protected it from the road.
rather older contemporary of Bess of Hardwick.
Th is time, instead of having the inmates
living on the road frontage, they were housed
rather comfortably in two wings parallel to
the road, and a range connecting them nearer
the river with an arch through to the gardens
which went down to it, all shielded by a very
grand screen facing the road with a central
entrance wide enough for vehicles and a pair of
pedestrian entrances. Th e end bays consisted
of interpenetrated pediments supported by a
Roman Doric order, interspersed with niches.
Th e centrepiece, supported by pillars, was
Th is agreeable building, the maintenance income
of which was topped up by William Cavendish,
Bess’s eldest son (later 1 st Earl of Devonshire),
by rents from Edensor, suffi ced for the twelve
pensioners, until the time of William, 5 th Duke
of Devonshire, who succeeded in 1764. He
was somewhat infected by the same desire to
build as his ancestrix, Bess, and was, by the
time of his death in 1811, responsible for many
improvements at Buxton (including the Crescent,
currently being restored), Chatsworth and many
other family properties, probably as a distraction
from the gloriously wayward Georgiana.
Th e censorious dissenter, William Hutton clearly
disapproved of allowing the indigent poor to live
in such style, writing:
‘Whatever convenience the
interior of the present structure
may now possess, the design of
the front ill accords with the
nature of the establishment. Th e
simplicity and modest plainness
that should exist in a structure
KITCHENS, WET ROOMS,
BATHROOMS
& SHOWER ROOMS
He was especially keen to improve the
Chatsworth estate, and at fi rst hired James Paine
to replace the stables there with the present epic
construction, along with the unfi nished Palladian
mill in the park. When Paine moved on to other
projects, he hired Paine’s acquaintance John Carr
to undertake work at Buxton, and Derby’s Joseph
Pickford to continue at Chatsworth. Pickford’s
greatest tour-de-force at Chatsworth was the
Edensor Inn, a brick building of outstanding
subtlety, the Edensor rectory (later destroyed
when the village moved), the North Lodge,
Ashford Hall for the agent, and three eighths of a
vast but unfi nished octagonal stable block, also in
Edensor, opposite the Inn.
Bathroom Images
of Leabrooks.
To Somercotes
Main Road B6016
LEABROOKS
To Swanwick
44a Charles Street, Leabrooks,
Derbyshire DE55 1LZ
Hence it fell to Pickford to come up with a design
to replace Bess’s rather poky almshouses with
something altogether rather more up-to-date,
re-named the Devonshire Hospital. Pickford,
whose style tended to be pitched to accord with
his clients’ requirements, was Neo-Classical
when employed by a Tory (as at Kedleston)
and Palladian, the favoured style of the Whigs,
led locally by the Duke, when employed by the
governing Tories’ political opponents. Hence the
new almshouses, also in stone, were fi rmly in the
Palladian revival style: ancient Roman elements
disposed according to the published precepts of
the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, ironically a
es
C
rl
ha
t
ee
Str
Opening times: Monday to Friday 9am – 4pm, Saturday 9.30am to 1pm.
E: [email protected] T: 01773 608531
* Not in conjunction with any other offer
CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 21