A LIMITED edition of 100 2016 calendars has been produced to raise money for the Friends of Hardwick, and it contains 24 pictures of the park, near Sedgefield. It is a slimline calendar, and it costs just £5 from the visitor centre or the hotel.
The front cover features a splendid picture of the Temple of Minerva in the snow.
John Burdon bought the estate in 1748, and his architect, James Paine, began laying out the parkland in 1754. Paine placed the temple on a little hill with extensive views of the surrounding countryside, and he based his design on a mausoleum built by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the Croatian town of Split in the 4th Century AD. Paine visited the area on his Grand Tour in 1755.
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