Renishaw

Renishaw is a large industrial village, whose industry long pre-dates the Industrial RevolutionL the Sitwell family founded an ironworks here in about 1640. To the east lies Renishaw Hall and Gardens, overlooking the pleasantly situated Renishaw Park Golf Club. Renishaw Hall was for four centuries the home of the idiosyncratic Sitwells and famed for the unmatchable four-acre Italianate garden laid out by the eccentric Sir George Sitwell. The Sitwell family and, in particular, Dame Edith, Sir Sacheverell and Sir Osbert, have over the years become one of the most famous literary families in England.

The Hall is also said to be haunted by a number of ghosts. In particular there is the little boy in pink, known as the Kissing Ghost because this is just what he likes to do to any guests at the Hall. The grounds of the village rectory, a handsome late-Georgian building, are also worth seeing. Though not laid out by the Reverend Christopher Alderson, he set about improving them in the late 18th century. A magazine of the time said that the Reverend ‘was so renowned as a garden improver that he was employed at Windsor as well’. Renishaw Hall is open to the public from April to September.

Renishaw village also marked the end of an era for the traditional industries of the area, when the last colliery closed here in 1989.