The Legend of Dorothy Vernon at Haddon Hall

Haddon Hall, a medieval manor house near Bakewell, Derbyshire, is a remarkably preserved relic from antiquity, with roots reaching back to the 11th century. In 1087, William Peverel held the manor of Haddon when the survey resulting in the Domesday Book was undertaken. Though it was never a castle, a licence was granted to construct a wall around the manor in 1194. The Vernon family acquired the manor in 1170 through a marriage between Richard de Vernon and Alice Avenell. The Vernons built most of the structure we see today, except for the Peveril Tower and part of the Chapel of St Nicholas, which preceded them, and the Long Gallery, which was built in the 16th century.

In 1563, Dorothy Vernon, the daughter and heiress of Sir George Vernon, married John Manners, the second son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. A legend grew that Sir George forbade the union and that Dorothy and Manners eloped by slipping away from a ball and fleeing through the gardens. While the legend has been made into novels and other works of fiction, Dorothy nevertheless inherited the hall. Their grandson inherited the Earldom in 1641, and his son was made 1st Duke of Rutland in 1703. After 1703, the heirs used Haddon Hall very little, and it lay almost in its unaltered 16th-century condition until the 9th Duke of Rutland began a lifetime of meticulous restoration in the 1920s.

Haddon Hall remains in the Manners family to this day, and is structured around two courtyards. The upper (north-east) courtyard contains the Peverel or Eagle Tower and the Long Gallery, while the lower (south-west) courtyard houses the chapel. The Great Hall lies between the two. As was normal when the hall was built, many of the rooms can only be reached from outside or by passing through other rooms, making the house inconvenient by later standards.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons