A Grand Tudor Manor House
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By the time that George 6th Earl of Shrewsbury inherited the lordship in 1560 the Talbot family had acquired sufficient wealth to enable him to become one of the foremost nobles of England. The sixth earl became the most powerful of all the Talbots and eventually the richest nobleman in the north of England. He was a member of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council, Lieutenant-General for Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and after the execution of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, in 1572, Earl Marshall of England. He owned castles at Sheffield, Pontefract and Tutbury, a large manor house at South Wingfield, hunting lodges at Sheffield, Tutbury and Worksop, the former Rufford Abbey, a house by the baths at Buxton, and a small lodge at Handsworth, beyond Sheffield Park.
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George is best remembered in relation to the powerful women that manipulated him, in particular his second wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, the redoubtable Bess of Hardwick. She was married three times before she married George Talbot and both owned and built a number of houses on her own behalf. She became the second wealthiest and most important woman in England after the Queen. The couple married in 1568, and though the marriage was initially happy, the strain of accommodating Mary Queen of Scots in captivity for many years took its toll and the couple’s relationship ended in a notoriously bitter and acrimonious feud. |
It is a reflection of the confidence that Queen Elizabeth I felt for the Earl that England’s most powerful political prisoner in history was entrusted to his keeping. On 4th February, 1569, Mary Queen of Scots and some fifty attendants rode into Tutbury Castle where her custody was handed over to the earl of Shrewsbury. He was to remain her gaoler for the next fifteen-and-a-half years. In late 1570 she was taken to Sheffield Castle where ‘For her safe keeping the earl took into his employ forty extraordinary servants, selected from amongst his tenantry, who kept watch day and night at the castle.’ On occasion she was transferred to the Manor Lodge as well as the Earl’s other houses at Buxton and Chatsworth for short stays.
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Mary’s complaints over her increasingly poor health, the enormous cost of accommodating such a demanding ‘guest’ and her huge entourage, the constant tension of being under the Queen’s scrutiny and the fear of reprisal lest either of the Queens died, as well as pressure from his tenants and suspicious wife all took their toll on George’s health. A large collection of his letters, in his virtually undecipherable writing, survive and tell the sad story of his increasing paranoia. It was in 1584 that Mary was removed from his keeping but by this time he was estranged from Bess, who went on to build Hardwick Hall, and died in 1590. |
A Tudor Powerhouse.
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During the 1570s the 6th Earl undertook a major programme of remodelling of the manor house built by his father and grandfather to reflect his status. A gatehouse, built in brick with twin octagonal towers, was the most imposing of these developments although only the cellars and base of the towers survive today and hardly reflect the grandeur of this range. The Turret House, however, built most probably in 1574, still stands as the one remaining roofed building on the site. |
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Local tradition has it that this was built as a prison to hold Mary Queen of Scots but this is very unlikely. In fact it probably served both as a gatehouse and a hunting tower, a fashion in deer parks in the 16th century - the elaborate plaster decoration on the second floor could have been in the room where guests could take shelter after viewing the chase from the roof and partake of a 16th century-style ‘banquet’ of sweet desserts and wine. |
On the second floor in the Turret House the most important room is distinguished by a fine fireplace and elaborate plaster ceiling. The fireplace has an overmantel with two columns flanking the arms of George Talbot, prominently featuring two Talbot dogs as supporters, modelled in deep relief. The ceiling is fashionably decorated in a pattern of eight-pointed stars with heads, leaves and flowers; all of the highest quality. It is tempting to suggest that Mary and Bess spent time here choosing designs for the ceiling as well as their elaborate embroideries.
Turret house
Illustrations of similar twin towered entrances, eg Hampton Court, Oxburgh.
