THE VERNONS: ART AND ARCHITECTURE AT SUDBURY HALL, DERBYSHIRE

When George Vernon inherited Sudbury Hall in 1659, he quickly decided to knock it down and build a newer version. Within twenty years he had not only built a new hall but also a new village, and had knocked down the old hall and the old village. The first part of the talk is about the style of the new hall and some of the beautiful objects that George put inside it.

The second part deals mostly with the people who followed him after his death in 1702. These included the first Baron Vernon, the wealthy women who married into the Vernon family, and the queen who lived in the hall for three years. It ends with the decline of agriculture, and its effects on the Vernon estates, in the late Victorian period and finally the reasons why the property passed to the National Trust in 1967.

Lecturer:  Duncan Ferguson – Duncan Ferguson’s  career was spent in teaching History, firstly in a grammar school in Devon, then abroad in international schools teaching the International Baccalaureate Programme in Argentina, Uruguay and Ethiopia. Then he spent the last 25 years in two Staffordshire comprehensive schools, one near Wolverhampton and the other near Burton on Trent.  Volunteer for the National Trust at  Sudbury Hall and is a member of the committee of Arts Society Needwood Lichfield.

Duncan has kindly agreed to present this lecture at nil cost to the Society as part of a reciprocal arrangement with our Chairman, Ed Isaacs, who delivered a lecture at no cost to the Arts Society Needwood Lichfield. We are very grateful to Duncan for this.

Image source: Wikipedia courtesy of DeFacto