Padley Hall

About

Padley Hall (or Padley Manor) was an Elizabethan great house overlooking the River Derwent near Grindleford, Derbyshire, England. The remains of the hall today are mostly just foundation walls. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument.

Not to be confused with 17th-century Padley Hall near Ripley. Padley Hall was a large double courtyard house dating back to the 14th century, although it was built on the site of an earlier Norman manor house. William the Conqueror gave the Padley estate to his supporter the head of the De Bernac family.

The Bernac family changed their name to Padley after the estate. The hall was built for the Padley family and subsequently passed onto the local aristocratic Eyre family, when Joan Padley married Robert Eyre (Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests in 1481). It became the residence of Sir Thomas Fitzherbert through his marriage to Anne Eyre in 1534.

The Fitzherbert family were devout Catholics, refusing to attend the services of the Church of England. Sir Thomas had given the hall to his younger brother John by 1588. In July 1588, the hall was raided and two Catholic priests (Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlum) were discovered hiding...