Holme Hall

Accommodation

Entrance porch; drawing room; dining room; family room; sitting room; games room; cinema room; kitchen/breakfast room; scullery; utility room; boot room; master bedroom suite with large bed/sitting room, two dressing rooms and bathroom; 6 further bedrooms; two dressing rooms/potential bathrooms; four further bath/shower rooms; further dressing room; loft room/gym; luggage room.

Amenities

Beautiful landscaped gardens; large terrace; two tiered upper terrace; kitchen garden; banqueting house; prospect house; mirror pond; extensive parking; gardeners wc; log stores; tree lined main drive; rear drive and track; wine cellars.

Situation

The house is situated on the banks of the River Wye on edge of the market town of Bakewell with its excellent local amenities, the larger conurbations of Sheffield and Chesterfield are within an easy drive with their more extensive shopping, recreational and transport facilities including mainline trains to London St Pancras. Bakewell is the home of the headquarters of the Peak District National Park and therefore the property sits on the door step of excellent outdoor activities including walking, cycling, climbing at nearby Froggatt Edge and fishing to name but a few. There are many places of cultural interest nearby including Chatsworth, Haddon Hall and the historic spa town of Buxton.

Historical Note

Holme Hall is a 10,000 sq. ft. manor house, listed Grade I and set in four acres of gardens on the edge of Bakewell, and described in Pevsner Architectural Guides as ‘an important and interesting C17th house with earlier remains, set in important and interesting C17th formal gardens’.

Holme was granted to Thomas Foljambe in 1401 and, during the 16th century, was owned by the Eyre family who were involved in the local lead industry. The hall incorporates an earlier Tudor house in its north wing, retaining a medieval doorway, and with its old hall in front turned, as Pevsner points out, ‘into a much grander kitchen with a huge fireplace probably in 1626’. The main part of the current house was constructed in 1626-1628 by Bernard Wells, a lead merchant originally from Gloucestershire. It was based on Robert Smythson’s designs for smaller Italianate villas. The hall was expanded in 1658 with the addition of the east and west wings by his daughter Anne and her husband Robert Eyre of Highlow Hall, who was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1638. Robert Eyre was also responsible for the terraced gardens, which include the Grade II listed banqueting house, prospect house (including a bust of Thomas Hobbes who resided at nearby Hardwick Hall) and two-tier terraces. Striking external features of the west wing range are the ogee-topped oeuils de boeuf dormer gables on both main elevations, with the surrounds of the oval windows having keystones at each quadrant.

Bernard Wells’ elder daughter, Mary, was sister-in-law of John Bradshaw, president of the court that tried Charles I in 1649, and husband of Henry Bradshaw who, after the restoration, was summoned to appear before the House of Lords and charged with the murder of the Earl of Derby on whose trial he had sat (it being a breach of privilege for a commoner to condemn a peer to death), but Henry was acquitted and pardoned.

As mentioned, Mary’s sister Anne and her husband Robert Eyre inherited Holme Hall in 1658 and passed the property to their son, William Eyre, who was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1691 and married to Katherine Gell (sister and heiress of Sir Philip Gell of Hopton Hall). William and Katherine had two surviving sons: William, the younger son, inherited Holme Hall in 1706 and took the name of Archer on succeeding to estates in Essex, Berkshire and Soho, London, and John, the elder son, inherited Hopton Hall and took the surname Gell.

In the mid-18^th century Holme Hall was tenanted by the Twigge family until 1767 when a new tenant Robert Birch moved in and who purchased the hall in 1802. In 1831 the hall was purchased by Robert Arkwright who then sold it in 1837 to Joseph Hodgson who in turn sold it to Thomas Gisborne (a retired diplomat who had been based in St. Petersburg) in 1854. His third son, William, who was born at Holme Hall, became colonial secretary of New Zealand and the city of Gisborne is named after him. Thomas’ son, Francis, inherited the hall in 1868 and, following his death in 1878, left it to his widow Katherine Du Vernet Gisborne for life with the remainder to her daughter, Gwendoline, who had married Gerald Twiselton Wykeham Fiennes.  Katherine subsequently married Benjamin Armitage in 1887 and the hall was used as a summer residence by them until 1912 when it was leased to Edward Lascelles Hoyles, who in 1920 exercised his option to purchase and lived there until after the second world war. In 1949 the hall was owned by Edwin Llewellyn Raworth and was sold in 1961 to Colonel and Mrs J P Hunt. There were three more owners until the current owners acquired the hall in 2009.