Barlborough Hall

Barlborough Hall
Barlborough Hall
Quick reference Type Prodigy house Location Barlborough, Derbyshire Coordinates 53°17′57″N 1°16′58″W / 53.2991°N 1.2827°W / 53.2991; -1.2827 Built c. 1583-84 Built for Sir Francis Rodes Architect Robert Smythson Architectural style Elizabethan Owner Mount St Mary's Website msmcollege.com/prep Listed Building – Grade I Official name Barlborough Hall Designated 19 November 1951 Reference no. 1108972 Listed Building – Grade II* Official name Gazebo at Barlborough Hall Designated 23 March 1989 Reference no. 1367143 National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens Official name Barlborough Hall Designated 4 August 1984 Reference no. 1001365
Location of Barlborough Hall in Derbyshire

Barlborough Hall is a Grade I listed^[1] 16th-century country house in Barlborough, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. It was built in around 1583-84 for Sir Francis Rodes and is attributed to Robert Smythson.

The house was built by Sir Francis Rodes in around 1583-84, evidenced by the date 1583 on the porch and 1584 on the Great Chamber chimneypiece and is probably by Robert Smythson,^[1] designer of several of the most famous Elizabethan houses, who worked with Sir Francis's patron,^[1] the wealthy Earl of Shrewsbury.^[2]

It was the seat of the Rodes baronets until their extinction in 1743 on the death of the fourth baronet, Sir John Rodes. Sir John made alterations to the house in 1696 and 1713.^[3] It then passed to the Hatfield and then Heathcote families, members of which took the Rodes surname and altered the house further in the 19th century.^[3] It remained in the family until 1935, when it was sold, and it was sold again to the Jesuits of Mount St Mary's College in 1938.^[3]

A gazebo nearby was built in the 17th Century and is Grade II* listed,^[4] whilst the gatepiers^[5] and former stables^[6] are Grade II listed. The house sits in parkland which is Grade II listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.^[7]

Barlborough Hall School was founded as an independent Catholic day school around 1939 by the Jesuits who had purchased the house in 1938. The school was the Preparatory school for Mount St Mary's College at Spinkhill, 2.2 miles down the road. In 2025, along with Mount St Mary's College, the school closed because of financial difficulties.^[8]

• Grade I listed buildings in Derbyshire
• Listed buildings in Barlborough
• List of Jesuit sites in the United Kingdom
• List of Jesuit schools

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  School front
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  Surrounding buildings
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  School grounds

• Peter McArdle, The Story of Barlborough Hall: With a Short Account of Its Parent College Mount St Mary's College, Spinkhill, 1979.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barlborough Hall.

• Barlborough Hall site
• Domesday Book on Derbyshire
• Photographs of Barlborough Hall