History of Kedleston

Rival to Chatsworth

Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 5th Baronet (1726–1804), succeeded his father as MP for Derbyshire in 1754 and inherited Kedleston in 1758. He set about creating a new ‘power house’ to support his political ambitions and to rival Chatsworth, about 20 miles to the north - the home of the Cavendishes, Dukes of Devonshire and the leading Whig (or reformist) family in the county. To create an expansive setting, he enclosed the park and swept away the village to the north of All Saints Church.

Italian inspiration

To realise his architectural vision, Sir Nathaniel first employed Matthew Brettingham (1699–1769), who had built Holkham Hall in Norfolk from the 1730s. Like Holkham, Kedleston derived from the elegant rural villas designed by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–80), themselves inspired by ancient Roman prototypes. Kedleston’s plan, with a central block to be linked by curved quadrants to four wings, was based on Palladio’s unbuilt design for the Villa Mocenigo in the Veneto. In 1759 Brettingham was superseded as architect by James Paine (1717–89), who began work on two of the wings and part of the central block.

James Paine was in turn ousted by a younger rising star recently returned from Italy, Robert Adam (1728–92), who had initially been tasked with designing Kedleston’s landscape and park buildings. Sir Nathaniel was ‘struck with wonder and amaze’ at Adam’s drawings of Roman architecture and soon gave him charge of the whole project. Adam’s devotion to ancient Rome was such that he signed letters home as ‘Bob the Roman’. At Kedleston he created a magnificent homage to the monuments of the ‘eternal city’. He also used elements from the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Split, in Croatia, which he surveyed and published. These references were designed to be recognised and admired by the privileged few who went on extended tours of Italy. Although Sir Nathaniel (made 1^st Baron Scarsdale in 1761) never made a full ‘Grand Tour’, Adam brought ancient Rome to Derbyshire for him.

Temple of the Arts

Not only the buildings, pleasure grounds and park, but also the contents of the house were designed by Robert Adam. He created spaces for casts of sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome, fixed the layouts of paintings by Italian and Northern European masters and even designed the sumptuous silver display in the dining room. He created an austere library – considered masculine – and an elegant music room housing an organ in a case of his own design.

Adam worked with talented craftspeople to produce what are now considered some of the finest examples of eighteenth-century furniture, including the sculptural drawing room sofas carved with mer-folk and dolphins by John Linnell (1729–96), and the dramatic palm-fronds of the state bed created - in anticipation of a royal visit - by James Gravenor (active 1760–70). The combination of classical architecture and artistic riches earned Kedleston the epithet of ‘the temple of the arts’.

Lord Curzon’s ‘Eastern Museum’

Curzon inherited Kedleston in 1916 and remodeled some of the ground floor rooms for his own use and to house a collection of over 1,000 objects from across Asia, acquired on his extensive travels. Once known as the ‘Indian Museum’ and later the ‘Eastern Museum’, the collection includes objects from countries as diverse as Japan and Turkey, Korea and Nepal. The largest group of objects originates from India and reflects the period when Curzon was Viceroy. The collection ranges from tourist souvenirs to diplomatic gifts, commissioned pieces and personal items. The museum at Kedleston was set up in 1927 in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The way in which the collection is displayed and labelled reflects the period in which it was created. 

George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India

Following the death of the 1st Lord Scarsdale in 1804, a combination of diminished fortune and frugality left Kedleston little changed through the 19th and early 20th century. But George Nathaniel Curzon (1859–1925), the eldest son of the 4th Lord Scarsdale and later the 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, was to become the most well-known member of the family.

Already marked out for great things while still at Eton College and then at Oxford University, George was keen to follow a political career and made himself an expert on colonial affairs. An ardent proponent of Empire and opponent of women’s suffrage, he was a divisive figure even in his own time.

Curzon went on to become Viceroy of India (1899–1905), ruling the subcontinent on behalf of the British Crown. At the start of Curzon’s tenure India was struck by a devastating famine which, in spite of officially sponsored relief efforts, caused very significant loss of life (estimated to have been in excess of a million people) through starvation and disease. In 1903 Curzon orchestrated the Delhi Durbar to celebrate the accession of King Edward VII as Emperor of India. Curzon’s first wife, Mary Leiter (1870–1906), daughter of a Chicago millionaire, garnered international press when she wore a dazzling dress incorporating zardozi embroidery and applied beetle wings and assembled by Worth of Paris to the Durbar ball.

Following Mary’s death in 1906, Curzon married a second American heiress, Grace Hinds Duggan (1877–1958). After the First World War he served as Foreign Secretary in the British Government (1919–24) but did not achieve his ultimate ambition of becoming Prime Minister.

The twentieth century

Lord Curzon and Mary, Lady Curzon, had three glamorous daughters, Irene (1896–1966), Cynthia (1898–1933) and Alexandra (1904–95). However, because of the rules of primogeniture (only allowing sons to inherit aristocratic estates), when Lord Curzon died Kedleston went to his nephew Richard, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale (1898–1977).

During the Second World War Kedleston was used as a listening station for the interception of enemy radio signals, providing data for the codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park. Richard Curzon quietly looked after Kedleston until his death in 1977, when it passed to his nephew, Francis, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924–2000), who was determined to secure Kedleston’s future in the face of very substantial inheritance tax.

In the care of the National Trust

In 1987 the 3rd Viscount transferred the house and majority of the contents to the Government in lieu of inheritance tax which, with financial support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, transferred them to the National Trust. The Trust embarked on ambitious work to restore Robert Adam’s vision for the first floor, which included recreating historic textile designs and restoring the great palm tree state bed. In the gardens, the Hermitage has been rebuilt and work continues to re-establish the layout of the Georgian ‘pleasure grounds’.

A greater understanding of the significance of the Asian collections at Kedleston and their potential relevance to wider audiences has led to a new focus on the Museum collection. Research is now underway to conserve and inform a re-presentation of the objects. There are many things we do not know about this collection, numerous questions to be answered and stories to unravel. How and where Curzon acquired the objects is one important aspect. So too is their cultural, religious, and artistic significance. 

This eighteenth-century ‘temple of the arts’ remains a venue for contemporary art. Twenty-first-century Kedleston has hosted projects including ‘Promenade’ by Susie MacMurray (2010); ‘Shakti: Contemporary art responses to historic South Asian collections’ by Meadow Arts (2013–14); ‘My Adornment Is My Power’ by Anisha Parmar (2023–24) and the current exhibition 'How Did We Get Here?'.