Hardwick Hall: Off the Wall
Fascinating Five…
1. Bess of Hardwick built Hardwick Hall with so many windows that they were celebrated in a local rhyme: ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall'.
2. The balustrades of Hardwick Hall display Bess's initials in large, stone capitals – ‘ES', for ‘Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury' where no one could fail to admire them.
3. Bess expected all her servants, men and women alike, to spend some needlework time on creating tapestries to hang on the walls. The pieces on which they worked are still on show at Hardwick Hall but are nowadays only allowed to be in the light for a couple of hours each day to prevent fading.
4. Bess wrote, "I especially will and require that my funeral be not over-sumptuous, or otherwise performed with too much vain and idle charge" – she subsequently provided more than £3,000 to spend on it – in 1608, a small fortune!
5. Derby Cathedral tower has a ring of ten bells, one of the largest and oldest in the country. The same bells rang for Bess' funeral.
