Attraction in South Yorkshire

Sheffield Botanical Gardens are a beautifully maintained Victorian pleasure garden occupying nearly 20 acres in the residential suburb of Broomhill, less than two kilometres from the city centre. Opened to the public in 1836 by the Sheffield Botanical and Horticultural Society, they represent one of the finest surviving examples of early Victorian landscape garden design in the north of England and provide a peaceful, richly planted refuge within easy reach of the city. The gardens were designed by Robert Marnock, a leading Victorian landscape gardener who adopted the gardenesque style then being advocated by John Claudius Loudon, an approach that emphasised the careful arrangement of plants to display each species to best individual advantage rather than creating an overall landscape effect. This produced a style of garden where paths wind through a series of distinct plant collections, each presented in well-designed settings that allow individual plants to be appreciated and studied as well as enjoyed aesthetically. The most architecturally significant feature is the range of three classical pavilions at the garden's northern boundary, Grade II listed structures designed in the Ionic style that originally served as conservatories for tender and exotic plants. These elegant buildings were restored between 2003 and 2012 at considerable cost and now house subtropical plants and cacti in their temperature-controlled interiors, functioning as they always did as display houses for plants that cannot survive the Sheffield climate outdoors. The plant collections at Sheffield Botanical Gardens reflect over 180 years of horticultural development and include a National Collection of Weigela as well as significant collections of ornamental grasses, roses, heathers and rare trees. The bear pit, a curious Victorian feature that originally housed a bear as a visitor attraction, has been repurposed as a sunken garden. The woodland section of the garden provides seasonal interest through spring bulbs and the autumn colour of mature specimen trees. Entry to the gardens is free throughout the year, making them one of the best value attractions in Sheffield. Events including outdoor theatre, flower shows and family activities take place throughout the year.

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is one of the most extraordinary houses in England, a building so ahead of its time and so boldly conceived that it has never quite stopped astonishing visitors in the four centuries since its construction. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick, the hall was a deliberate statement of power and cultural ambition from one of the most remarkable women of the Elizabethan age. Bess was born into relatively modest gentry in 1527 and through four strategic marriages accumulated a fortune that placed her second only to Queen Elizabeth I in wealth among the women of England. By the time she commissioned Hardwick Hall she was in her sixties and at the very peak of her influence, and the building she created reflects that confidence completely. Her initials ES, for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, are worked into the roofline in elaborate stone lettering so large they can be read from a considerable distance, an unmistakable declaration of ownership and ambition. The hall is most celebrated architecturally for its extraordinary expanse of windows, which led to the contemporary rhyme "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." At a time when glass was enormously expensive, the facades of Hardwick Hall are filled with it from ground to roof in a way that was genuinely unprecedented in English architecture. The windows flood the interiors with natural light and create a visual drama on the facade that looks almost modern in its transparency. Robert Smythson, who may have contributed to the design alongside Bess herself, created a building that pushed the technical boundaries of Elizabethan construction. The interiors are equally remarkable. Hardwick preserves one of the finest collections of Elizabethan textiles in existence, including tapestries, embroideries and needlework that Bess spent decades accumulating. Many pieces were worked by hand by Bess and her companions, including the captive Mary Queen of Scots, who spent years under Bess's guardianship at nearby Chatsworth. The Great High Chamber and the Long Gallery are among the grandest surviving Elizabethan rooms in England, their original furnishings still largely in place. The estate surrounding the hall includes a walled garden, an orchard and a deer park, as well as the ruins of the earlier Old Hardwick Hall that Bess had inhabited before commissioning this grander replacement. The contrast between the ruins of the old hall and the magnificence of the new one says everything about the ambition that drove this remarkable woman. Hardwick Old Hall is managed separately by English Heritage and stands close enough to view clearly from the gardens. Hardwick Hall is now in the care of the National Trust and is open to visitors throughout the year. The combination of exceptional architecture, extraordinary textiles, strong historical narrative and beautiful Derbyshire countryside makes it one of the most rewarding historic house visits in the country.