Earlier Houses: There was an earlier house, located in the hollow toward the village of Radbourne, that supposedly was able to sleep 100 people, with stabling for 200 horses.

House & Family History: Radburne is one of the few British estates that has passed only by inheritance and marriage since William the Conqueror's ally, Henry de Ferrers, was granted it in the 11th century. The red brick, nine-bay, two story house with Keuper sandstone dressings house has been called the most perfect Georgian house in Derbyshire. It is stately, yet compact, magnificent, yet unpretentious. It's been home to the Chandos-Pole family and their ancestors for close to a thousand years. The current beautiful 18th century box was built between 1739 and 1745 by William Smith of Warwick the Younger for German Pole, Squire of Radburne. As Maxwell Craven points out, the House marks well the change from the provincial baroque to Palladianism. The principal rooms are on the piano nobile and consist of the Hall, which has a screen of paired Ionic columns, the Morning Room, the Drawing Room, the Saloon (which has an important collection of paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby), and the Dining Room (once the Withdrawing Room). The Saloon is surely one of the finest Georgian rooms in the Midlands – enriched with much rococo plasterwork and an extremely elegant chimneypiece and overmantel in the style of Inigo Jones. The Rustic contains a number of rooms with reused 17th century paneling, as well as an elegant cantilevered staircase with wrought ironwork by Robert Bakewell. Recent interior design at Radburne has been equally successful and worthy of note; the late Mrs. Wakelyn Chandos-Pole hired John Fowler to restore and re-order the house in the late 1950s, with the result that Radburne is still a remarkably unspoiled example of the work of this 20th century doyenne of country house taste. (We are very grateful indeed to Oliver Gerrish for this history of Radburne).

Collections: Radburne has a fine collection of paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby.

Comments: Writing in "The Derbyshire Country House," Maxwell Craven and Michael Stanley call Radburne "…the most perfect of all the Georgian seats in Derbyshire, if not further afield."

Garden & Outbuildings: In 1883 the Estate stood at 4,540 acres.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: 2.S. Vol. II, p. 184, 1855.

House Listed: Grade I

Park Listed: Not Listed

Current Seat / Home of: Lady Chichester, a member of the Chandos-Pole family, who have been here for over 600 years.

Past Seat / Home of: SEATED AT EARLIER HOUSE: Henry de Ferrers, 11th century. SEATED AT CURRENT HOUSE: German Pole, 18th century.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No