Sunday…..so its time for Church

All Saints Church, Kedleston, Derbyshire

Reference is made to a Church at Kedleston in the Doomsday Book of 1189 and it is suggested that a place of worship was located on this spot for many years prior.  Most of the Church you see today is a mixture of architecture style from various rebuilds from the 13th to 19th centuries….though the doorway is  one of the remaining Norman features.

All Saints was the Parish Church of the early settlement that was Kedleston, a village that surround the Church and was scattered over several miles.  In those early days the Church was of great importance to any community, the centre of  village life and by tradition the only place to be on a Sunday and I suspect for more than just worship……..all footpaths lead to the Church.

But like many villages, the lands and farms were swallowed up by the gentry or noble classes of the day.  Kedleston was no exception the lands becoming part of what was to become known as the Kedleston Estate.

As was the way of things in England the land owner, in this case the Curzon Family, established a manor house.  The first house was built in 1297.  Eventually the village was moved and the land surrounding the house became Park Land.  As the families fortunes and stature increased there was a need for a bigger house to reflect that status, so modifications and enlargements were made at various times in its history.

The current house we see today was commissioned by Sir Nathanial Curzon (1st Barron Scarsdale) in 1759.  He appointed the then relatively unknown architect Robert Adam who brought refreshing new style to his design…..a style still much admired today….a real Stately Home.

As for All Saints Church, it was enclosed within the House Gardens and adopted, again as was the way of things in those times, by the Family and contains many tombs and memorials for the Curzon Family.  All Saints remained in use till 1983 when it was declared redundant as a place of worship and is now in the care of the ‘Churches Conservation Trust’.

Kedleston Hall

I mentioned that the House, to give it its fully title ‘Kedleston Hall’, is much admired today.  Now in the hands of the National Trust visitors are welcome to explore the grounds and garden, and view the house.  Whilst the interior is grand and unique, it is the exterior that leaves with me a lasting and impressive memory….

After crossing the gates you cannot fail to be impressed by the welcoming broad sweep of the frontage with its sweeping steps to a 6 colonnaded entrance.  The central building being linked to two near matching wings by way of curved galleries…Imagine arriving by horse drawn carriage to what I suspect would be a very stylish welcome…

You expect that the front of any House would be impressive, there to tell all who visited just how important the owner was.  But at Kedleston the rear of the property, the side that faces south is equally as grand.  Maybe that has a good deal to do with Robert Adam, whose reputation for garden design was the original reason for Sir Nathanial bringing Adam to Kedleston.

The House had to be fitting for a garden and landscape designed by Adam, a House to match the surrounding Parkland….

Colonnades and sweeping steps, sculptural features and a copper dome make the more private side of the Hall nearly as impressive as the front….

South Front from the lawns

A Welcome Home….in Real Style

8th March (C) David Oakes 2015