Wingfield Manor, South Wingfield, Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. Another historic site I used to manage.

Wingfield Manor is a vast and immensely impressive ruin of a palatial medieval manor house arranged round a pair of courtyards, with a huge undercrofted Great Hall and a defensible High Tower 22 metres (72 feet) tall.

This monument to late medieval ‘conspicuous consumption’ was built in the 1440’s for the wealthy Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Treasurer of England. Later the home of Bess of Hardwick’s husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots here in 1569, 1584 and 1585 for and on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I.

It is open to the public by pre booked tours only and managed by English Heritage.