CALKE ABBEY

Some information on Calke Abbey - Ticknall, Derbyshire - where most of the Clarke family worked and lived.....................

A country house in decline
Set on the site of an Augustinian priory, Calke Abbey was never actually an Abbey. The name was given to the house in 1808 - nearly 300 years after it stopped being used for religious purposes!

A sacred site
Founded in the early 12th century, Calke Abbey was established by Richard, 2nd Earl of Chester, a wealthy landowner. The independent religious community at Calke was not to stand the test of time, and by the mid 1100s, religious activity was reduced to serving as a cell to the nearby priory at Repton. This state of affairs lasted until Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.
Calke's first secular inhabitant, was John Prest, an affluent Grocer. On his death, the house passed through many different hands, until it landed with the Harpur family, who held on to the house until the National Trust in the 1980s.

The building
Set in a hollow, and in a secluded position, Calke Abbey is a fascinating mixture of architectural styles. Nothing exists now of the original building, with the earliest masonry dating back to the Elizabethan age. Between 1701-1704, the house underwent a huge rebuilding project, resulting with the house being entirely remodelled.

The Abbey today
By the 1980s, Calke Abbey had fallen into a state of disrepair. The Harpur family had found it difficult to maintain the house, and the soaring debts that the house generated meant that the only solution was to donate the house to the National Trust.
A huge campaign followed to save Calke, the outcome was successful, and the rest, is history...

The collectors of Calke
In 1622 the Harpur family moved into Calke Abbey - and stayed there for nearly 360 years. Over this time some remarkable characters lived there - each shaping the ancestral home in some way.

A family of distinction
The Harpur family had been prominent figures in the Derbyshire area for many years before they bought Calke. With a rich history of political figures and justices of the peace, the Harpurs would have been fairly well-known and respected by the time Calke came into their possession.
Although the family were of a high social status, a bid to improve their standing came in 1626, when Sir Henry Harpur (the first owner of Calke) bought a Baronetcy. This social ambition continued throughout several later generations of the Harpur family, and aristocratic gestures such as exquisite furniture and seats in parliament, meant that the family were not to be overlooked by the establishment.

The solitary gene
In 1789, Henry, 7th Baronet, inherited Calke. It was evident early on in his life that he was not particularly sociable - in fact it was remarked that he had 'an unhealthy taste for solitude'. Henry's temperament soon led to him failing to fulfil his social obligations, and then he committed the unforgivable social faux-pas of marrying a lady's maid. Though eccentric, during his lifetime, Henry did resurrect the dormant barony of Crewe of Steane, and changed the family name to Crewe.
Henry's son, Sir George Crewe revived the upper class tradition at Calke, though his son had some degree of his grandfather's eccentricity. This gene would reappear several more times, and indeed by the time the last Harpur-Crewe inhabitant of Calke died, the house had become an 'impenetrable country house'.

The Calke collectors
Visitors to Calke Abbey today can be overwhelmed by the immense variety of objects in the house. Not only were the Harpur family avid collectors, but they apparently never really threw anything away either.
Noteable collectors include John, 4th Baronet, who had a taste for articles that reflected his wealth, thus furnishing the estate with rich hangings, silver and fine furniture. Later, Sir George Crewe spent a great deal of time investing in the house, and many of the works of art hanging today are part of his legacy.
Sir George's son added more cases of stuffed birds and natural history, in the hope of making his home more of a private museum. The penultimate Harpur to reside within the Abbey devoted his time to the collection of birds and butterflies - expanding the Calke collection to several thousand items.

My Aunt remembers visiting the family at Calke for holidays. During that time she never actually saw or got anywhere near the Abbey. Servants got to work via a tunnel for access to the Abbey so they were not seen in the park by the gentry !