Bretby Hall is a country house at Bretby, Derbyshire, England, north of Swadlincote and east of Burton upon Trent on the border with Staffordshire. It is a Grade II listed building. The name Bretby means "dwelling place of Britons".
History
The first Bretby Hall was built in 1630 after Thomas Stanhope bought the manor of Bretby from the family of Stephen de Segrave, to whom it had been granted by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester.
In 1628, his grandson Philip was made Earl of Chesterfield by King Charles I of England. From then on, Bretby Hall was the ancestral home of the Earls of Chesterfield.
The second Earl was responsible for a complete restyling of the gardens so that some compared them favourably with the gardens at Versailles.
The fifth Earl demolished the mansion and built the present Hall (c.1812) to a design by Sir Jeffry Wyatville.
The sixth Earl, known as the "racing Earl", loved cricket and shooting, so he built a cricket pitch and raised game birds.
Following the death of the seventh Earl in 1871, the Estate passed to his widowed mother, Anne Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Chesterfield, who was a close friend of Benjamin Disraeli. On the death of the Countess, her estates devolved upon Lord Porchester,
See https://www.bretbyhall.com
See also
- Grade II* listed buildings in South Derbyshire
- Listed buildings in Bretby
References
4. https://www.bretbyhall.com a website dedicated to Bretby Hall past, present and future.
- Bretby Hall: Racing elite rode at Bretby
- Bagshaw's 1846 Trade Directory of Derbyshire
- South-Derbyshire Gov. - Bretby pdf
- A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland Vol II Sir Bernard Burke (1855) p103. Google Books
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