Chatsworth trumps Hardwick Hall for Derbyshire visitors on Britain’s poshest train

Phil Bramley
By Phil Bramley
Published 27th May 2024, 10:50 BST
Chatworth House, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire with its 105-acre garden, has proved four times more popular than neighbouring Hardwick Hall with passengers travelling on Britain’s poshest train.Chatworth House, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire with its 105-acre garden, has proved four times more popular than neighbouring Hardwick Hall with passengers travelling on Britain’s poshest train.
Chatworth House, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire with its 105-acre garden, has proved four times more popular than neighbouring Hardwick Hall with passengers travelling on Britain’s poshest train.
Chatworth House, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire, has proved four times more popular than neighbouring Hardwick Hall with passengers travelling on Britain’s poshest train.

During a sell-out trip to Chesterfield next month aboard the 1930s Pullman-style Northern Belle, 166 people have chosen to visit Chatsworth while only 46 have plumped for Bess of Hardwick’s former home.

Champagne-sipping passengers are paying up to £700 a ticket to travel on the train, once part of the iconic Orient Express, which will set out from Ipswich and Norwich on Thursday, June 6.

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But that price does include a three-course brunch during the slap-up journey from East Anglia, followed by a gourmet six-course dinner on the way home in the evening.

The crimson-painted steam locomotive Princess Elizabeth hauls the famous Northern Belle over the Settle-Carlise lineThe crimson-painted steam locomotive Princess Elizabeth hauls the famous Northern Belle over the Settle-Carlise line
The crimson-painted steam locomotive Princess Elizabeth hauls the famous Northern Belle over the Settle-Carlise line

A Northern Belle spokesman said: “Both Chatsworth and Hardwick are wonderful buildings so we are rather survived at how easily Chatsworth won the battle of the Derbyshire stately homes.

“While it is certainly the better known of the two. Hardwick is a stunning Elizabethan masterpiece and the formidable Bess was quite a character. She got through four husbands and every time seemed to become richer until she ended up one of the most powerful women in the whole country. Hardwick was also famous as the first training base for the Parachute Regiment during the second world war.”

But the spokesman admitted that Chatsworth had one big advantage over its rival with the Northern Belle passengers. For one of the train’s individually-decorated carriages carries the name Chatsworth and boasts the marquetry motif of the stately home.

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The Northern Belle, which was once part of the iconic Orient Express group, has been voted one on the world’s greatest trains.

Passengers study the menu aboard the Northern BellePassengers study the menu aboard the Northern Belle
Passengers study the menu aboard the Northern Belle

And famous stange and screen actor Bill Nighy described it as “the Grand Dame of luxury travel” when it featured on Channel 5’s “The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journey” TV programme.

The Northern Belle will set out from Chesterfield and Derby in September to visit Edinburgh and the Fringe Festival, followed by a steam-hauled trip from Derby over the picturesque Settle-Carlisle line in October. Fares start at £295. For further details see www.northernbelle.co.uk.

Related topics:Bess of HardwickChatsworthBritainHardwick HallDerbyshireChesterfield

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