Edensor

The village name is pronounced 'ENZER'.

The view from Chatsworth House would be improved if all the houses in Edensor were removed. So said the 4th Duke of Devonshire, who demolished the cottages in the original village (which is mentioned in the Doomsday book). The original village was on the west side of the River Derwent, which was straightened out at the same time as the demolition.

In 1839 the 6th Duke arranged for the architect John Roberson to create the new village. The present estate village has a variety of styles with mock-Tudor, Swiss Chalets and Italian villas present.

Sir Joseph Paxton, who laid out Chatsworth Gardens and designed Crystal Palace, is buried in the church at Edensor. JFK's sister, Kathleen Kennedy, is also buried here. She was the widow of the 10th Duke's eldest son, who was killed in action in 1944.

The Edensor show is normally held in late June.

The Mitford Sisters

If you are interested in Edensor, the biography of the Mitford Sisters, called The Sisters, by Mary S. Lovell, contains details from 1946 when

" . . . Debo [nee Mitford], Andrew (the son of the Duke and Duchess of Derbyshire] and their two children . . . moved to the pretty village of Edensor . . .which is part of the Chatsworth Estate. Living at Edensor House . . . But while the estate was in good heart, Chatsworth House was in a sorry condition."

It goes on to tell about the 9th Duke and Duchess and what happened to the house during the war, including that it was used as a girls' boarding school (instead of being used for as an army barracks). Debo's husband, Andrew, was the son of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and after the [second] war they organised the cleaning and renovation "although the government limited the supply of paint to 150 [pounds] worth. At Easter 1949 they reopened the house to the public. After the war, Andrew and Debo became the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and lived in the village of Chatsworth, before they were forced to give up many of their holdings. There is some further information about Edensor and Chatsworth in the book.

The book is about the lives of 6 remarkable women spanning much of the 20th Century and of significance to Edensor is Debo - who declared when she was 6 that she wanted to be a Duchess and is the current dowager Duchess of Devonshire!