Elvaston is five miles from Derby completing a quiet group with the hamlets of Ambaston and Thulston on a level stretch of meadows near the winding Derwent.
Away from the road, facing a fine avenue, are the blue and gold gates of Elvaston Castle, from a royal palace in Madrid. These grounds were famous for their avenues and groves of trees, their gardens with lake and rockeries, and a lovely yew garden where one of a maze of yew hedges, fashioned into many arbors, encirlces a lawn.
These beautiful gardens laid out by William Barron in the 1830's have been restored by Derbyshire County Council since the 1960's and they, along with the Working Estate Museum within the grounds, can once more be fully enjoyed again. Elsewhere within the grounds there are woodland paths and an old walled garden with herbaceous plants, shrubs, climbers on the walls, and a good range of herbs.
The stately house, remodelled after 1817 to the designs of James Wyatt, was a home of the Stanhopes for over 400 years.
The first Stanhope of Elvaston was Sir Michael, who lost his head in 1552 for being faithful to Protector Somerset; the story of some who followed him is told in the church by their home. Before the Stanhopes the Blounts were here for generations, and traces of the home they knew are said to survive in the castle. The first here was Sir Thomas, Treasurer of Calais during the wars of Henry VI, and here is said to have been born his son Walter Blount, who was Lord Treasurer to Edward IV and became the first Lord Mountjoy.
A fine embattled tower, with eight pinnacles above the high tree-tops, crowns the church which came into the Domesday Book but has now nothing older than the 13th century lancet in the aisle.
In the chancel, on a monument with a wonderful canopy and a shield which is almost a monument in itself, lie the marble figures of Sir John Stanhope and his second wife, he with golden hair and gilded armour, she in a black hood, resting on a tasselled cushion of red, green, and gold. He was knighted when James I came to England. One of his sons was the Philip who became Lord Chesterfield in 1628. Another son, John, sat in Charles I first Parliament, and his striking monument of white marble shows him wide awake, resting on his arm. He died in 1638 and this costly monument is said to have been damaged by Sir John Gell, his bitter enemy when the Parliamentarians plundered the castle.
Sir Aston Cokayne, the poet of his family, was born at Elvaston early in the 17th century. Made a baronet by Charles I, he suffered heavily for his loyalty, and after an extravagant life, joined with his son in selling Ashbourne Hall and other estates. He died a poor man.
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