Hassop
From 1498 at the time of the purchase, the Eyre family who were Roman Catholic and staunch Jacobeans moved into that testing period of religious persecution. Throughout the reign of Elizabeth I they suffered a great deal in consequence, emerging steadfast. They were among those few Catholic families of the nobility who did not switch sides as a temporary expedient.
Hassop is a tiny hamlet just north of Bakewell.
The Manor was owned by the Foljambe family until the 14th century when it passed by the marriage of Alice Foljambe to Sir Robert Plumpton. His son Sir William Plumpton served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1453. The Plumptons sold the estate in 1498 to Catherine Eyre (widow of Stephen Eyre.
Born into an age when it was fashionable for Noblemen and their sons to follow the Byronic grand tour of Europe, Francis left his mark on the rapidly changing face of Britain with the unusual Catholic church built 1816-1818 in the severest Classical Revival style, its front resembling an Etruscan temple, the interior with a coved coffered ceiling - it has an underground passage to the Hall. Improvements to modernise the Hall and some alterations in the Neo-Classical mould were carried out a few years later. The estate passed to Dorothy, sister of Francis, in 1852, and a year afterwards to her widower, Colonel Charles LESLIE.
The recorded history of Hassop reaches back 900 years to the Domesday Book.
HETESOPE in the Book of Winchester: to give Domesday its correct title - was the Manor and principal residence of the FOLJAMBES who remained until the reign of Richard II (1377-1399). The infant heiress to Hassop became a ward of the King. He sold her for 50 marks to Sir John Leake, who speedily made one hundred percent profit by re-selling her at a price of 100 marks to Sir William Plumpton, who wished to secure her as a wife for his son. The matrix for England was still that increasing power struggle between the Barons and the only real power was the possession of land.
The Civil War in 1643 was another time of trial for the family, and Rowland Eyre turned his home into a Royalist garrison. It was the scene of several skirmishes and after the Parliamentary victory, the captured property was only redeemed at a cost of £21,000. Rowland's father had dismantled much of the old Hall and replaced it with the present one.
In fact, the hall has only had five resident families in it since the Domesday Book, and is today one of Derbyshire's finest hotels / restaurants.
The only pub in the village is also named after the local land-owners (and is one of two pubs in the area named after this family).
In 1814 Francis Eyre, a direct descendant of Stephen, succeeded to the title of Earl of Newburgh.