Renishaw Hall and Gardens
Renishaw Hall and Gardens
Renishaw Hall, Renishaw
Sheffield, S21 3WB
Tel: 01246 432310
About Renishaw Hall & Gardens
Renishaw Hall & Gardens is a magnificent family attraction open between March and September and located near Renishaw, Derbyshire, not far from Sheffield. A family home open to pre-booked ticket holders, Renishaw Hall & Gardens began life in 1625 as Cytewelle, the home of iron nail magnate George Sitwell, with origins among the French Kings, Robert the Bruce and the Macbeths. The family attraction provides a wealth of fascinating history for visitors, as well as wonderful gardens in 300 acres of grounds, making for a varied and delightful family day out. Indeed, Renishaw Hall & Gardens was an inspiration for D. H.
Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and it featured in BBC TV’s 1995 Pride And Prejudice.
The Grade II* listed building that is the stately home of Renishaw Hall & Gardens has remained in the hands of the Sitwells for over 350 years, with major alterations and additions by Sir Sitwell Sitwell around 1800. It contains an impressive art collection and historical artefacts, while the grand drawing room - still used for parties – boasts Italian furniture including two Doges’ chairs, Brussels tapestries, and a Sargent canvas hanging above a Chippendale commode. An antechamber designed by Lutyens leads to the 1808 ballroom, and among the other notable objects is, allegedly, Robin Hood’s Bow (not to mention a ghost!). Not something you’ll see on an ordinary family day out!
Renishaw Hall & Gardens in fact has several museums in the 300-yard long building, the Sitwell Museum recounting the history of the family attraction from the 1500s to the present. There are details of visitors such as Constant Lambert, Cecil Beaton, William Walton and T.S. Eliot, as well as a collection of costumes. The John Piper collection focuses on his paintings, while a Performing Arts Gallery in the 1995-converted Georgian Stables features the costume worn by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, memorabilia of Laurence Olivier, and items from Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, Cher, The Beatles, Sir Robert Helpmann and Sir Noel Coward.
The family attraction also has a 20th Century Ballet Exhibition of costumes, sculptures and stage designs, with items from Anna Pavlova, Nijinsky, Nureyev, Fonteyn (the original Aurora costume from The Sleeping Beauty), sculptures by Brenda Naylor and Maurice Lambert, and stage designs by Edward Burra, John Piper and David Hockney.
The stunning eight-acre Italianate gardens of 1895 feature flowing water, wide vistas, secret garden rooms, children’s trails and a magic garden, the Gallery café, a 2002 sculpture trail in the old walled garden, a maze, tree carvings, a story teller’s chair in a tree trunk, a willow tunnel, 1999 orangery, a National Collection of Yucca trees, and a vineyard laid down in 1972 and producing wine since 2006.
A family day out to Renishaw Hall & Gardens can be enhanced by a garden tour, with guides pointing out yew hedges, pyramids and antique statues, mixed borders, rose and clematis gardens, exotic plants, specimen trees and rare shrubs. Hall tours are also available, along with conference facilities in the converted 18th-century stable block, and civil wedding ceremonies in the 1769 Red Dining Room or Wedding Lawn marquees (details at the Sitwell website for Renishaw Hall & Gardens).