Carnfield Hall is a country house dating from the 15th and 16th Centuries, standing in its ancient deer park and surrounding woods, 1½ miles from junction 28 of the M1 on the Derbyshire/ Nottinghamshire border, a haven of tranquility to this day.

Originally known as Carlingthwaite, old Norse Viking for “an old womans clearing”, it passed to the Babington family in the 15th Century and its first known occupant, Dame Alice Babington married Gregory Page in the 1470s. As a result of serious intimidation and the kidnapping of Mr Page in 1498 by her relative, Hugh Revell, the estate was sold to him in 1502.

Edward Revell remodelled the medieval half timbered house (some of which remains) in the 1570s and his grandsons added panelled rooms and staircases in Jacobean times. Fortuitous marriages with Harpur and Wilmot heiresses in the 17th Century enabled another building phase in the early 1700s by Robert Revell who was unfortunately murdered in 1714 by two of his servants “in his bed”, Oh happy days! He lies today in a resplendent tomb in South Normanton Church, attended by life size weeping Cherubs!

Robert Revell’s grandaughter Frances died aged 20 of the dreaded smallpox in an epidemic that struck Nottingham in 1736, a year after her marriage to the curiously named Strelley Pegge. ( In their love letters she called him “Dear Mr Pegge” and he ” My dearest charmer”! An interesting formality for a future marriage, as well as the fact that Mr Pegge produced a natural son by his mistress, just before his marriage!) Her uncle, the Reverend Francis Revell, inherited Carnfield on her death and lived in the Hall with his wife, mistress and three illegitimate children! In 1770 it passed to his natural son Tristram a Colonel in the army, whose legitimate cousin, Sophia, disputed his right to inherit, but because she had eloped with the family coachman in 1735 had been cut off. On the Colonel’s death in 1797 without children the estate passed to his cousins.

Sir John Eardley-Wilmot got into financial difficulties and to avoid embarrassment to an MP he was made Governor of Tasmania thus removing the problem. So in 1834 he sold the estate to his land agent Joseph Wilson, captain of the Alfreton Cavalry, magistrate and solicitor. Mr Wilson was arrested in 1840 and incarcerated in Derby Gaol for some weeks, dying at Carnfield, just before his trial. In 1912 his grandson Vaughan Radford, a most typical old English country squire died and Carnfield was sold to Alfreton estate agent, Melville Watson. In June 1914 he was murdered by a disgruntled tenant and the ongoing restoration started by him abruptly stopped. His widow lived on at the Hall until her death in 1949 and in 1960 the house was abandoned by its subsequent owner because of subsidence.

Unoccupied and in a state of total dereliction it was bought in 1987 in a fit of probable insanity by the present owner, James Cartland who has spent the intervening years restoring this fascinating house.

The house now contains a unique collection of family treasures and a huge number of unusual items collected by Mr Cartland over 50 years many of them relating to the history of Carnfield Hall. The restoration continues and now includes the ancient park which is to be laid out as it was in the 18th / 19th centuries based on numerous plans and photos found over the years. The Hall itself can be visited by appointment by groups of 10 or more.