Chatsworth House Tel. 01246 582204 O/S sheet 119. SK260702 Website: www.chatsworth.org
Car park fee £1 then free access to Park and Stand Wood.
Admission charge for House, Garden, Farm and Adventure Playground
The House
Chatsworth is set in a 1000 acre park in the heart of the Peak
District National Park and has been the home of the Cavendish
family for nearly 450 years. The Elizabethan house built in 1555
by Bess of Hardwick was altered by her great-great-grandson
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, between 1686 and 1707.
The 6th Duke made extensive alterations in the 1820s. The 26
richly decorated rooms on view are decorated throughout with
painted walls and ceilings, woodcarvings, elaborate inlay
furniture and wall hangings of tapestry and leather. The house
contains one of the finest private art collections in the world.
Carriage House Restaurant
In the east range of James Paine's stable block built in 1764.
Excellent meals in fully licensed self service restaurant with
friendly staff to assist where required. Starts to get busy at
one o'clock.
Shop
Adjacent to restaurant in carriage house block. Good selection of
quality gifts at reasonable prices. Worth a visit if only to
purchase a guide leaflet/map for Stand Wood.
Gardens
As we now see it, the garden is, in the main, the creation of the
sixth Duke of Devonshire and those who worked for him, the famous
gardener Paxton (later Sir Joseph) and the architect Sir Jeffrey
Wyatville. Features of an earlier classical formal garden are
still to be seen. They include Flora's Temple, the Sea Horse
Fountain on the south front and the Cascade. Other features
include giant rockeries, herbaceous borders, rose garden, the
maze and extensive walks among rare shrubs and forest trees.
Stand Wood Walks
The hillside to the rear of the house was originally a steep,
rocky and bleak escarpment which was landscaped and planted with
trees by the fourth Duke aided by Lancelot (Capability) Brown.
The Stand Wood walks were laid out by Joseph Paxton in the years
1835 to 1845. The fashion for romantic landscape was at its
height and the steep bank with its rocky outcrops, waterfalls and
dramatic views provided a splendid chance to make a natural
extension of the garden.
The Hunting Tower or Stand Tower
A "stand" from antiquity has meant a place at
a height for spectators. Stand is the old name for the building,
from which the wood took its name. Hunting Tower is a later
romantic name.
Fountain and Lakes
One of Paxton's many great achievements was the creation
of the Emperor Fountain in the 'canal' on the south front of the
house. The Duke went to Russia as ambassador to the coronation of
Czar Nicholas in 1843, and there he saw the fountain at Peterhof,
then the highest in the world. He determined to have a bigger and
better fountain at Chatsworth to surprise the Czar, who promised
to come to England the following year. The story of this
ambitious project is described in "The Work of Joseph
Paxton" by G.F. Chadwick.
The following is a brief outline of the work involved in the
construction of the fountain. A survey was commenced in December
1843, a conduit was dug across the moor above Chatsworth to
collect water to be stored in a new reservoir called the Emperor
Lake. The Lake involved the digging and moving of about 100,000
cubic yards of soil by shovel, wheelbarrow and horse and cart and
the building of a masonry dam. The supply pipe to the fountain is
15 inches diameter with a wall thickness of 1½ inches and the
fall is 381 feet which necessitated a cutting 15 feet deep into
solid rock in places to obtain the correct line of inclination.
The work progressed at great speed, continuing at night by the
light of flares, and was duly ready on time, only 6 months after
it was begun. Alas, the Czar never came to Chatsworth but it was
called the Emperor Fountain in his honour.
The Aqueduct
Built in 1839 of large rusticated stone without mortar
and reinforced with iron straps. The sixth Duke (1790-1858) 'The
Bachelor Duke' writes "The idea of a broken aqueduct was
given me by one on a gigantic scale in the garden of
Whilhelmshoehe, by Tassel. Had I to build it again it should not
be true, as now, to the cascade but, by taking a slanting
direction, should show its arches to the west. Nothing can be
more beautiful than the icicles formed by the dripping from those
arches in fantastical shapes during the winter".
Waterfall
Another feature of the Stand Wood walks, found above the
Aqueduct.
The Farmyard
The Farmyard was a pioneering exhibition set up to show
the ordinary commercial farm stock and explain how the land is
used. It aims to be an entertaining but non sentimental
exhibition explaining the life cycles and ultimate uses of dairy
cows, beef cows and calves, sheep and lambs, pigs, horses, goats
and poultry. There are trout rearing tanks where children can
feed the fish. A milking demonstration with commentary at 3.30
each afternoon is of great interest to the children.