Padley Hall

Padley Hall stands on a rise above the River Derwent near Grindleford in the Peak District of Derbyshire. Once a large double-courtyard house, it dates from the 14th century but occupies the site of a Norman manor granted by William the Conqueror to the De Bernac family. The Bernacs took the name Padley after their estate, and the house passed to the Eyre family when Joan Padley married Robert Eyre, sheriff of three counties in 1481. Sir Thomas Fitzherbert came into possession through his marriage to Anne Eyre in 1534, making the hall a centre of recusant Catholic life. The Fitzherberts sheltered priests during Elizabeth I’s reign, and in July 1588 two of them, Nicholas Garlick and Robert Ludlam, were discovered in the walls. They were tried for treason and executed in Derby, their bodies displayed on St Mary’s Bridge as the Padley Martyrs. John Fitzherbert was imprisoned and died two years later, while Sir Thomas spent 32 years in the Tower before his death in 1591. The hall was confiscated, returned, and finally sold in 1649 after heavy fines and debts left it ruinous; stones were reused in two barns. Today only foundation walls remain of the great house, but Padley Chapel, the old gatehouse, still stands intact. Converted into a Catholic chapel in 1933, it honours the martyrs and hosts an annual pilgrimage each July from Grindleford station. The chapel is Grade I listed and sits within the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate, where Padley Gorge preserves part of the original estate landscape.