aerial photograph of Hardwick Hall Derbyshire England UK. The Elizabethan "prodigy house" took 7 years to build from 1590 to 1597. The architec was Robert Smythson who was working for Elizabeth Talbot, the Countess of Shrewsbury who was more usually known as Bess of Hardwick who was the wealthiest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I. One of England's finest Renaissance Buildings the property is now owned by he National Trust and opened to the public.