Sudbury Hall

The Vernon family came to Sudbury as a result of the 16th-century marriage of Sir John Vernon to Ellen Montgomery the Sudbury heiress. The house was built between 1660 and 1680 by George Vernon, grandfather of George Venables-Vernon the 1st Baron Vernon and is notable for its superb Great Staircase, fine Long Gallery, and portraits by John Michael Wright, and of Charles II's mistresses. Inside there is a mixture of architectural styles with carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Edward Pearce, murals by Louis Laguerre and elaborate plasterwork by Samuel Mansfield, James Pettifer and Robert Bradbury. The carvings above the main entrance porch were sculpted by William Wilson. There are formal gardens with a tree-fringed lake.

Cherry Ann Knott has suggested that the design of the hall was based on Crewe Hall in Cheshire, which stands around 1.5 miles from Haslington Hall, where George Vernon was born.[1]

The property was leased for three years from 1840 by Queen Adelaide, the widow of William IV of the United Kingdom. The east wing was added by George Devey in 1876–83.[2] The building is now owned and maintained by the National Trust.[3] to whom it was gifted by the Vernon family in 1967.

The house was used for the internal Pemberley scenes in the BBC dramatisation (1995) of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The house's centrally-positioned domed cap-house featured in the title shot of ITV's children's offering The Book Tower.

• Catherine Pegge
• George John Venables-Vernon, 5th Baron Vernon

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sudbury Hall.

• Knott, Cherry Ann (July 2010). GEORGE VERNON 1636–1702 ‘Who built this House’ Sudbury Hall Derbyshire. Tun House. ISBN 978-0-9565240-0-3.

• Sudbury Hall — The National Trust Museum of Childhood information at the National Trust