Old Hall Hotel

File:Buxton wells.JPG

Since at least the Middle Ages, a hall has stood on this site by the warm spring for which Buxton water is known. The oldest part of the current building was once part of a four-storey fortified tower, built in 1572 by Bess of Hardwick and her fourth husband, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.A Brief History of the Old Hall Hotel, 4-page leaflet published by the Old Hall Hotel and available from reception.

File:Mary_Queen_of_Scots_stayed_here_Blue_Plaque.jpg staying at the Old Hall Hotel, reading “MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS: Whilst under the custodianship of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, she stayed here to take the waters on numerous occasions between 1573 and 1584.“]]

The tower was used at times between 1573 and 1584John Daniel Leader, Mary Queen of Scots in Captivity (Sheffield, 1880), pp. 305, 384. to house Mary, Queen of Scots, whilst she was in the custody of the Earl on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I. According to Doctor John Jones of Derby, author of Buxtone's Bathes Benefyte (1572), the tower was a lodging, purpose-built for those taking the waters. Visitors to Shrewsbury's "goodly house" enjoyed a game of table bowls known as trou madame. Women guests had their own bench for the game, the men could play in a gallery. In fine weather they could play bowls outside in an alley or practice archery and other exercises.John Daniel Leader, Mary Queen of Scots in Captivity (Sheffield, 1880), pp. 303.John Jones, The Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones (London, 1572), pp. 2, 13–14.

Her last visit to Buxton was in the summer of 1584.{{cite web|url=http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/timeline.htm|website=marie-stuart.co.uk|title= Mary Stuart Society}} It is claimed{{Cite web|url=http://www.oldhallhotelbuxton.co.uk/history.php|title= History of the hotel| author=Anon|year=2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310134947/http://www.oldhallhotelbuxton.co.uk/history.php|archivedate=2010-03-10|website=oldhallhotelbuxton.co.uk|publisher= Old Hall Hotel|access-date=13 March 2010}} that it was Mary who inscribed the following couplet to Buxton on a window pane:

Buxton, whose warm waters have made thy name famous, perchance I shall visit thee no more – Farewell.

The inscription can still be seen in the window of room 26.{{cite web |url=http://www.eerie-evenings.com/Old-Hall-Hotel-Buxton-Ghost-Hunt.htm |title=Private and corporate ghost hunts at the Old Hall Hotel, Buxton, Derbyshire |publisher=eerieevenings.com |access-date=13 July 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302093412/http://www.eerie-evenings.com/Old-Hall-Hotel-Buxton-Ghost-Hunt.htm|archivedate=2011-03-02|author=Anon|year=2011}}

The Hall was rebuilt by one of Bess of Hardwick's descendants, the first of five Dukes of Devonshire, in 1670.

By 1727, the Old Hall had become a hotel, the only one in Buxton, where the writer Daniel Defoe stayed on his tour of Great Britain. Of the Hall he wrote: "The Duke of Devonshire ... has built a large handsome house at the bath, where there is convenient lodging, and very good provisions, and an ordinary well served for one shilling per head; but it is but one."{{Cite book|title= A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, Divided into Circuits or {{sic|hide=y|Journies}}|last= Defoe|first= Daniel|year= 1724–27|chapter= Letter 8, Part 2: The Peak District|chapter-url= http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp;jsessionid=2E9A3CC3CCB08894D9CAC2BCF21D76B2?t_id=Defoe&c_id=30|access-date= 17 March 2010}}

By the time that the nearby Georgian Crescent was built (1780–86), Buxton had become an established spa town; and the Old Hall had become a fashionable hotel for the Georgian aristocracy taking the waters. In 1791 one James Cumming (father of the noted chemist James Cumming) leased what was then called Buxton Hall Hotel from William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire in 1791. He was considered socially more than a mere hotelier, and the hotel's clientele included bishops and visiting aristocracy.{{Cite book|last=Brock |first=William |editor1-first=Mary | editor1-last=Archer |editor2-first=Christopher | editor2-last=Haley |title=The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge: Transformation and Change |date=2005 |page=138 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |chapter=Coming and Going: The Fitful Career of James Cumming |isbn=9780521828734 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sT6KLsd94dYC&pg=PA138|access-date=7 July 2010}} The Old Hall has served as a hotel ever since.

• Grade II* listed buildings in High Peak
• Listed buildings in Buxton

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Category:Hotels in Derbyshire

Category:Buildings and structures in Buxton

Category:Country houses in Derbyshire

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Derbyshire

Category:Country house hotels