Listed Building record MDR6123 - Renishaw Hall, Renishaw Park, Eckington

(SK 43787860) Renishaw Hall (NAT). (1) Renishaw Hall is a large, three-storeyed building comprising an original H-shaped core of circa 1625 by George Sitwell with additions in 1777 and 1793-1808, including extensive work in about 1800. The main features of the house are a central canted bay with battlements and a Gothic porch with panelled piers, cornic, battlements and pinnacles. Grade II*. (2) Now Grade I. Renishaw Hall has been the home of the Sitwell family for over 350 years. George Sitwell, born in 1600 built himself an H-shaped manor house, gabled and battlemented, that forms the central nucleus of the present house. Following the inheritance of the estate by Sitwell Sitwell in 1792, vast sums were spent in enlarging the house, including the addition of the red dining room in 1793, a new drawing-room in 1803 and the ballroom in 1808. However, financial disasters in the first half of the 19th century meant that in 1847 much of the estate and many of the contents of the house had to be sold. After that, the house ceased to be permanently occupied until coming to the present owner, Sir Reresby Sitwell, when for the first time for over a century the house is now opened up at all times of the year. (4) George Sitwell began construction of the hall in 1625, a grey-stone, three-storey house shaped like an 'H'. A battlemented hall with porch on the north side approached through a walled forecourt, forming the central stroke between two gabled wings. Today (1965) half of the garden and the forecourt have gone, and now an immensely long and rather chilling grey stone front with battlements and a five-sided Gothic porch in the centre. The current garden was laid out at the end of the 1800s by Sir Osbert Sitwell's father, Sir George Sitwell. The 1625 building remains as the central core round which the present house has grown. More than a century and half elapsed before the second stage in the building of Renishaw began. Mr Justice George Sitwell improved the estates and enlarged the garden, planting the avenues of elm and lime that remain to the south-west of the house. Further garden additions and replacement of the original mullioned windows with sash ones was done by the next owner, Francis Sitwell. When Francis died in 1753, the estate was passed to an elderly and rich cousin and on his death, the estate passed to his sister's son, Francis Hurt, who adopted the surname 'Sitwell' and emphasised the point by calling his son 'Sitwell Sitwell'. For his further additions to the house, Sir Sitwell Sitwell added battlements, pinnacles and the 'Sir Sitwell Sitwell dining room wing' in 1793. On the north-west side the the stables wererebuilt and enlarged to accommodate Sir Sitwell Sitwell's famous racing stud and also Sir Sitwell Sitwell's harriers and fighting cocks. (5)