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Bolsover Castle Chesterfield
'Hardwicke is rich, Welbeck is fine, Worsope is stately,
BOLS'ER DIVINE.' Richard Andrews 17thC poet.
English Heritage have taken the opportunity to secure a Civil Wedding License for this Castle: A more romantic setting for weddings than the 'Star Chamber' at the top of the Keep is hard to imagine. Bolsover also has the rare advantage of the Riding House, which can accommodate fully seated celebrations and events for up to 150 guests. Contact Dine on 0845 450 4545 for more information.
'By an unlikely miracle, the keep at Bolsover has survived into this century as an almost untouched expression in stone of the lost world of Elizabethan chivalry and romance,' wrote the historian and champion of the castle, Mark Girouard. The house you see today stands on the site of a medieval castle built shortly after the Norman Conquest by the Peveril family. Sir Charles Cavendish bought the old castle and began the project of building the present Little Castle in 1612, which, despite its embattled appearance, was designed for elegant living rather than for defence.
Sir Charles Cavendish intended the house for retiring from the world to an imaginary golden age of chivalry and pleasure. His son William, who later became a Duke, inherited the Little Castle in 1616 and set about its completion, assisted by the designer John Smithson. William then added the stately rooms of the Terrace Range and invited the Stuart court to a masque in 1634 which was written specially for the occasion.
Finally, William built another whole range for his horses. In the enormous Riding House, he trained them in the continental art of manθge, a kind of ballet for horses.
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