Chatsworth brings former Game Larder back to life as Landscape Interpretation Space
The Chatsworth House Trust has been awarded an £80,000 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help convert a grade-II listed former Game Larder into a place where visitors can learn more about the historic landscape.
Thanks to National Lottery players, work is now underway to design and install the new information displays in the Game Larder, which is due to open, seven days a week, from mid-December. Free to enter, the octagonal building in the park only 100 metres from the house at Chatsworth, will contain panels of images with historical facts information covering the last 500 years, with hands-on displays for visitors to explore and audio storytelling to explain the landscape as seen through its seven floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as its flora and fauna.
The Chatsworth House Trust is thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and is confident the Game Larder project will help people of all ages and all walks of life to enjoy and learn more about the heritage of their local landscape and its management.
The Game Larder project is part of a nationwide celebration of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s 300th anniversary. Its displays include the enormous impact Brown and his famous successor Joseph Paxton had on the ‘natural’ landscape, including the diversion of the river Derwent; the building of Edensor village; and the development of the famous 105 acre garden with its huge rockery, and plants and trees from around the world.
The opening of the Game Larder is a culmination of a project which has been running throughout the year which saw guided walks and talks on the evolution of the landscape.
The Devonshire Educational Trust at Chatsworth and the Capability Brown Festival are also supporting outreach work with a range of deprived community and refugee organisations in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, exploring the landscape at Chatsworth.
Rachel Parkin, Education Coordinator, says:-
“We’ve welcomed visitors who were originally from as far afield as Iraq, Sudan, Bangladesh, Syria, and Bulgaria, and visitors from deprived communities in the region many of whom had not previously seen much of the English countryside. The reaction from all involved has been really positive, which is great because we want to encourage visits and engagement with the landscape and countryside from a wider range of people.”
Sitting approximately 100 metres from the house, the Game Larder is an octagonal building on a stone plinth. Built in 1909, it was used for decades by the Dukes of Devonshire to store game in cool conditions but became derelict following arrival of modern refrigeration systems in the mid-20th century. During the 1950s and 60s the Game Larder was used as a chicken shed by Duchess Deborah Devonshire.
