Hopton Hall

The Gell family lived at Hopton Hall for several centuries until it was sold in 1989 and their influence can be seen throughout both villages.

The Hall has been rebuilt and altered over the centuries but there is a part of the original Elizabethan hall still standing with the red brick addition of later years surrounding it.

The Hall gardens are enclosed by a high red brick wall, which is hollow with a stove at one end. The hollow wall conducted heat from the fire round the wall, against which were grown various kinds of fruit trees. This warmth, together with its south-facing position, ensured an early crop of peaches and other fruits for the house. This was built by Sir Philip Gell, who founded the almshouses in Hopton in 1719.

The road to Cromford known as the Via Gellia, or Gell's road, was also built at this time to convey the world famous Hopton Wood stone, which was being quarried on his land at Hopton, to the newly opened Cromford Canal, from where it was despatched worldwide