Where The Morning Glory Shines Around The Door (Haddon Hall (Bakewell))

Member Name: Emmald

Product:	Haddon Hall (Bakewell)
Date:	15/06/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Architecturally amazing and just a good and interesting day out.

Disadvantages: Uneven stone floors and slopes may challenge anyone with mobility problems

I consider myself quite privileged to live within such easy reach of so many wonderful and exciting places to visit. Last weekend the weather was glorious and we decided to go and see what Haddon Hall had to offer.
Haddon Hall is just two miles South of Bakewell on the A6 - if you have Satnav then the postcode is DE45 1LA.

Car parking.
This is quite an unusual set up, the spacious car park for Haddon Hall is on the opposite side of a very busy road. At the car park you pay £1 a car and you are ushered into a parking space by a courteous attendant, who then hands you a leaflet all about Haddon Hall.

Crossing that busy road (A1)
You must pay great attention when you cross that busy road, the traffic is fast and constant and there are signs displayed that warn of the dangers.
But once you are safely across you then walk on a pavement until you reach the entrance to the Hall. This is only a couple of minutes walk.

Entering Haddon Hall.
Impressive, the gift shop is situated right at the entrance. A little bit further on up the drive you reach a booth where you can buy your tickets.
Haddon Hall is not owned by the National Trust, it is still family owned and the entrance charges are as follows :
Adults £8.75
Concessions £7.75
Children £4.75
A Family ticket £22.50
Regular visitor £16
Then it seems that party rates could well be available for groups of 15 or over.
Guided tours are by special arrangement.

Opening Times.
12 noon -5pm.
May to September though closed on the weekend of the 27th and 28th.
Open from the 3-26th October
Open from the 5-13th December 10.30-4pm

You then begin quite a long walk up a slow incline towards the hall, en route you walk over a small bridge and then you are facing the beautiful lodge house.
We had managed to time our visit well and the lodge house was awash with climbing roses all in bloom. If any of you are topiary fans then there are some clever examples in the front garden of the Lodge.
Although the Lodge has a stone wall running around it you feel compelled to stick your head over and take a peep, as expected the garden is chocolate box pretty. Cast your eye at the Lodge and turn toward the Hall and all you will be very grateful that you don't have to clean the thousands of tiny leaded panes of glass.

Before you make your way uphill toward the Hall you can use the loo if you want. Good clean facilities that must have recently been modernised. Ecover handwash ( How posh!) and watercolours hung on the walls.

The Haddon Restaurant.
We decided that coffee was needed before we went any further, it is a standing joke that we only ever go anywhere to have coffee and cake!
The restaurant is situated at the bottom of the hill too, so maybe the owners feel that you should stoke up before you attempt that climb up to the Hall.
There is a flight of stairs which lead up to the small restaurant and I immediately sensed that if you had mobility problems then Haddon Hall may be too challenging.

The small restaurant has plenty of seating, some pretty close together but very manageable. You find a table and then it is self service. There is a good selection of food on offer, both hot and cold. The soup of the day was certainly homemade, it looked good and it smelled even better.
I bought a round of cheese and salad sandwiches, which were garnished beautifully, a plain scone which was clearly homemade and added a small pot containing jam and clotted cream for good measure. I put that on the tray with two cups of large freshly ground coffee and I was charged £9.75 - which I thought was very reasonable.
There is one word that describe the tea rooms well - gentile, if you want to use two words then make the second word gracious.
Very pleasant staff and we thoroughly enjoyed what we ate.

The Uphill Climb.
Then we set off up that hill toward the impressive hall, I was fine but my Mum found it a slight struggle and we took plenty of time out for her to get her breath back.
Then we `peaked`! - only to find that I had mislaid the tickets !
So we sat on a boulder and systematically raided my handbag, my pockets, my clothing - just stopping short of the undies !
Then the tickets reappeared as if by magic and we were on our way again.

Haddon Hall.
The flagstoned square that sits in front of the Hall is so imposing, you can just imagine how life was all of those years ago.
We wanted to see inside of the hall itself first and felt that we could see the chapel on the way out.

Haddon Hall is mentioned in the Domesday Book, a building since the Norman times.
Haddon has been unoccupied at times, once it remained empty for over two hundred years. But in the 1920s the 9th Duke Of Rutland made it a family home again.

You enter the hall and you tend to feel slightly seasick, the hall floors are stone and very uneven stone at that ! So you do have to be careful and keep one eye on the floor.
I am not going to take you on a virtual tour of Haddon Hall, there is far too much to cover.
The only furniture that you see is huge and wooden and very very ancient - but very interesting and photography must be allowed within the hall because we ducked and dived to avoid being snapped.
The kitchens are amazing and have a great story to tell, you can `smell` that Ox roasting on that fire.

The Tapestries.
Haddon is quite renowned for having a wonderful tapestry collection and they are quite right on this front. Sadly the first couple of wall tapestries that you see were both covered with a fine net which almost rendered them invisible but we have to remember that the fine works of art are old ( to say the very least ) they are frail and on that bright and sunny day would have been damaged by the bright light.
But further on into the hall you do see some of the tapestries in all of their glory, no covers and you can see the millions of hours work that must have gone into each and every one.

The Paintings.
Sadly this will be short and sweet, there are few paintings but I saw a life-size charcoal drawing of one of the previous Lady Manners. It was one of those drawings that made you want to stop and take time to see properly.

Wander around the Hall at your leisure, sometimes you may pass a guide who is only too willing to answer any questions and we managed to `earwig` on a guided tour and glean a small amount of information.
But we will leave the hall there and move out into the gardens.

The Gardens at Haddon.
If you love roses, peonies, clematis and all of the other old fashioned flowers then Haddon Hall gardens are for you.
The gardens aren't pruned to within an inch of their lives, in fact there are many areas which have been allowed to grow wild and they are stunning.
Again the gardens would prove very difficult for anyone with mobility problems and I couldn't see that it would be possible to push anyone around in a wheelchair either.
The garden is on many different levels, this of course adds to the beauty of it. The grass is well cared for and the gardeners have just been planting new bedding here there and everywhere.
Lift your head and you can smell the roses in the air, all of the well known bushes and shrubs are there too.

Winding our way back down that hill.
By the time we had walked around those gorgeous gardens and had then had a slow trip back down that hill Mum had all but had enough but she really wanted to look inside of the chapel.

The chapel is calm and very tranquil, yet a notice says that there are Pipistril bats nesting in the roof and they can be noisy.
We sat in the cool chapel and just drank in the peace for a while.

My thoughts.
I loved Haddon Hall, it is architecturally beautiful and the gardens are not too contrived.
The whole setting is gloriously peaceful and it is an adults day out.
If I was going to choose a day out for my grandchildren then I don't think that I would take them to Haddon. But unlike many it isn't commercialised and that makes it a highly attractive proposition.
I think the outing cost us somewhere around £30, that was entrance fees and tea.

Maybe when the roses bloom again next year I would well consider revisiting, it was a grand day ( as they say our way!)
I just want to say one more thing - if you are not so fleet of foot or tend to be unsteady on your feet then Haddon Hall may be too much of a challenge for you. The grounds are hilly and are on many different levels, I would never want to put you off visiting but it is better to know beforehand.

Summary: If you can manage hills and flagstones then this is the day out for you.