High Drama at Haddon Hall

Claire Saul pulls focus on one of the UK's most popular filming locations

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Described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “the English castle par excellence” and in England’s Thousand Best Houses as “the most perfect English House to survive from the Middle Ages”, the stunning fortified manor house Haddon Hall has, unsurprisingly, been a popular filming location for period drama over the decades. Pride & Prejudice, Mary Queen of Scots, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Princess Bride and no less than three different film adaptations of Jane Eyre are included in the long list of productions that have chosen to shoot here.

Haddon Hall, near Bakewell, Derbyshire boasts a 900-year history. It has enjoyed the ownership of one family for the duration – the Vernon and Manners families. Lord Edward Manners and his family remain in situ today – but was unoccupied for nearly two centuries when, in 1703, Sir John Manners became the 2nd Duke of Rutland and chose to live at his preferred Belvoir Castle residence in Leicestershire, instead. The net result is Haddon escaped the modernising Georgian and Victorian eras and retained its medieval and Tudor architecture. When the 9th Duke and Duchess of Rutland returned there in the early 20th century, they began an extensive programme of restoration.