Derbyshire has an amazing wealth of great houses. This tour includes the medieval gem of Haddon Hall, the Palladian grandeur of Chatsworth, the literary legacy at Renishaw Hall and the great Elizabethan house, Hardwick Hall. While in Sheffield there will be a guided tour of the finest livery hall in the north, home to the Company of Cutlers.  The Mercure St Paul’s, situated in the heart of the city, is a luxury, contemporary four-star hotel with easy access to the adjoining Winter Gardens, Millennium Galleries and Graves Art Collection.    

Tuesday 21 September: Check into the hotel before meeting at 15.15 to walk the short distance to the Cutlers’ Hall.  Return to the hotel for a welcome drink and dinner.

Wednesday 22 September: Depart for a private guided tour of Renishaw Hall, the Derbyshire home for nearly 400 years of the Sitwell family, a house full of treasures accumulated over the centuries and surrounded by Italianate gardens with fountains and neo classical statues. Lunch will be provided before continuing to the Tudor mansion, Hardwick Hall, built for Bess of Hardwick, who, having inherited considerable wealth from marrying and out-living four husbands, each richer and further up the social scale than the last, built great houses including Chatsworth and Hardwick.  The latter with its famous façade, more glass than stone, has highly decorated interiors containing superb furniture and outstanding 16/17th century tapestries and embroideries, and is surrounded by historic parkland, orchards and a herb garden.

Thursday 23 September:  Depart for Haddon Hall, overlooking the River Wye, never a castle but “the most perfect house to survive from the middle ages” (Simon Jenkins).  Unchanged from the 15th century until the present day, despite a period of neglect in the 20th century, the 9th Duke of Rutland rescued the house and made it habitable once more. Finally continuing to Chatsworth – a spectacular house with magnificent interiors, painted ceilings, state rooms, collections of porcelain, silver, paintings and sculpture. A special exhibition celebrating the 90th birthday of the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, whose life has been a microcosm of the 20th century, and a private tour of the Chatsworth greenhouses that have been famous since Victorian times for the range and variety of interesting and rare plants they protect.

Tour Cost:
Price per person £488
Single Supplement £66
Non refundable deposit £100

Price includes:

	3 nights accommodation, breakfast and dinner at the Mercure St Paul’s
	All entries and private tours
	Lunch at Renishaw Hall
	Professional guide and executive coaching

From the Mercure St Paul’s Hotel, Sheffield