My Town Monday - Hatfield House.

Its amazing the history that is on your doorstep and just how little you really know about it!! I had my education broadened last year when we travelled the 4 miles from Beth's school to the great house. I was impressed, its a beautiful place and one I intend to revisit this summer.

Hatfield House was completed in 1611. It was built by Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury and son of Lord Burghley, the chief minister of Elizabeth I. The deer park surrounding the house and the older building of the Old Palace had been owned by Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, who had used it as a home for his children, Edward, Elizabeth and Mary. It was while she was living in the Old Palace, in 1558, that Elizabeth learned of her accession to the throne.

The Cecils’ former home was at Theobalds, also in Hertfordshire. In 1607, Elizabeth’s heir, James I offered to exchange Theobalds for the Old Palace and manor of Hatfield. A draft Parliamentary Act of exchange survives in the Cecil Papers at Hatfield, dated May 1607. Salisbury began building work immediately. The main architect of the house was Robert Lemynge but Simon Basil, the Surveyor of the King’s Works and Inigo Jones also contributed to the design.

Salisbury had been appointed Lord Treasurer in April 1607 as well as Chief Secretary, but, he became ill and died, aged only 48, in April 1612. Although he was buried in Hatfield, he didn’t live to enjoy the house that was to become the home of his descendants for the next 400 years.

The Old Palace is beautiful and just how imagined Elizabethan England to be.( a very romantic view!!) On a school visit they re-enact the life and times of an Elizabeth worker, we tasted food from the era, we had a go at archery, as all the Kings men were proficient archers, we had an audience with Henry VIII, and even got to sing him a song!!