It is estimated that half the population of England live within 50 miles of the Peak National Park, An area of out standing natural beauty that is visited by 22 million visitors each year from all over the world in fact it is believed that it is the most visited National Park in the world apart from Mount Fuji in Japan.
Bakewell famous for the pudding! is a bustling community, agricultural and small trade markets are held every Monday and have been since 1330. The annual two day Bakewell agricultural show also attracts huge numbers of visitors to the town.
Less than two miles from Bakewell are the historic splendours of Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall, Bakewell attracts at least a million visitors each year. A loyal county following who appreciate the many wonderful shops in the town and the locals who support the town businesses make Bakewell a thriving community. The European Community has provided funding for improvements to the town including 1500 parking spaces.
At the heart of picturesque Bakewell is the Rutland hotel which was an old coaching Inn which has been much altered from the time when it was built by the Duke of Rutland, whose vain attempt it was to create a spa town in Bakewell to rival the Duke of Devonshire’s Buxton.
The square is all that remains of this folly. No one knows how the interior of the Rutland Arms was set out, as the plans for the coaching Inn are long lost. We do know that Turner the painter, Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth all stayed at the Inn on their visits to Chatsworth which acted as a magnet to Europe’s intelligentsia. In the 19th century the Inn dominated the town. Although over the centuries half the area of the Iinn has been sold , the Inn still retains something of its former grandeur.
Recently part of the original property of the inn which is located opposite the main building of the hotel has been bought back by the current owner of the hotel and it is within this period building that the Rutland Antiques Centre is situated.
