www.flickriver.com/photos/juddersstuffok/ BEST VIEWS HERE. VIEW ON FLICKRRIVER OR SLIDESHOW "BEST VIEWED ON BLACK" VIEWING LARGE SIZE ON BLACK IS MUCH BETTER PEEPS.CLICK ON FLICKRIVER ABOVE EH The origins of the hall date to the 11th century. William Peverel, illegitimate son of William the Conqueror, held the manor of Haddon in 1087, when the survey which resulted in the Domesday Book was undertaken. The Vernon family acquired the Manor of Nether Haddon by the 13th century marriage to the Haddon heiress.[2] Though it was never a castle, the manor of Haddon was protected by a wall from 1195, when Richard Vernon received permission to build it.[citation needed] Haddon Hall's long gallery c.1890 Dorothy Vernon, the daughter and heiress of Sir George Vernon, the owner of Haddon Hall, married John Manners, the second son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland in 1563. Sir George disapproved of the union, describing his daughter's suitor as "the second son of an impoverished Earl." In addition, the Manners were Protestants, and the Vernons were Catholics. According to legend, 18 year old Dorothy eloped with Manners during a wedding party for her older sister. However, they must have later reconciled with Sir George, as the couple inherited the manor.[3] Their grandson, also John Manners of Haddon, inherited the Earldom on the death of his distant cousin the seventh Earl of Belvoir Castle. The 9th Earl, when made Duke of Rutland in 1703, moved to Belvoir Castle, and his heirs used the 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, the 9th Duke 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. A plan of Haddon Hall[1] Courtice Pounds as John Manners in Haddon Hall Poster: 1906 production of Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall The estate at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire 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. [edit] Layout The hall stands on a sloping site, and is structured around two courtyards; the upper (north-east) courtyard contains the Peverel or Eagle Tower and the Long Gallery, the lower (south-west) courtyard houses the Chapel, while the Great Hall lies between the two. As was normal when the hall was built, many of the rooms can only be reached from outside or by passing through other rooms, making the house inconvenient by later standards. [edit] In literature and the arts The hall has figured prominently in a number of literary and stage works, including the following, all of which describe the Vernon/Manners elopement: A light opera, called Haddon Hall, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Sydney Grundy, premiered in London in 1892. A novel called Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall was written in 1902 by American Charles Major and became a best seller. A play of the same name, based Major's novel, was written by American playwright Paul Kester. It debuted on Broadway in 1903.[4] Fred Terry and his wife Julia Neilson adapted that play for London, calling it Dorothy o' the Hall, where it played in 1906.[5][6] A 1924 film, starring Mary Pickford, was adapted by American screenwriter Waldemar Young (grandson of Brigham Young) from the Major novel.[7] The Hall features in Philip Hensher's 2008 novel, The Northern Clemency[citation needed] Frederick Booty, the English watercolourist, painted Haddon Hall several times, including pictures of the peacocks in the gardens.[8] [edit] In cinema and television The interior and exterior of the home (including the Long Gallery) were used in 1986 as Prince Humperdinck's castle in The Princess Bride. Franco Zeffirelli chose Haddon Hall as the location for his 1996 film of Jane Eyre, and the Hall featured in the 1998 film Elizabeth. It also appeared in the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice. Since then, it has appeared on television in 2006 as Thornfield Hall in Diederick Santer's 2006 BBC version of Jane Eyre and was so used again 2009[9] and in Cary Fukunaga's 2011 film of Jane Eyre.[10] The hall was the setting for A Tudor Feast at Christmas, a BBC2 documentary recreation of a Tudor banquet (first broadcast Christmas 2006) by the team of academics from Tales from the Green Valley.[11] In 1990, Haddon Hall was the set for the castle of the giants at Harfang in the BBC's adaptation of The Silver Chair, one of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.