Melbourne Hall is in the town of Melbourne, in the English county of Derbyshire. The much larger city of Melbourne in Australia has links to Melbourne in Derbyshire, and it was named after the Derbyshire town.

In the twelfth century, Melbourne Hall was owned by the Bishops of Carlisle, which is a diocese based in Carlisle Cathedral. The Diocese of Carlisle was created by King Henry I in the year 1833 to provide spiritual leadership for parts of the North of England.

During the early seventeenth century Melbourne Hall had a major reconstruction programme that was masterminded by the engineer and stonemason Richard Shepherd for his client Sir John Coke. These works started in the year 1629 and were completed in the year 1631.

Melbourne Hall was inherited by Thomas Coke in the latter years of the seventeenth century. He was an architect who designed and created excellent landscape designs and garden layouts for the hall. He did these works with the professional assistance of a local craftsman called Henry Wise. Work started on these in the year 1696 and the gardens and landscaping were completed in the year 1706.

These gardens are still in place, and can be seen in all their glory today. The gardens of Melbourne Hall feature 'parterres'. These are planting beds that are arranged in shapes that have edging. The edging is either in the form of low level partitions that are made of stone or hedging which can be low level or high level. Between the planting beds are gravel paths. The beauty of parterres is that they look good from a distance and close up as well.

The gardens of Melbourne Hall also feature avenues, which are walkways with lines of trees on each side. There is a yew walk, which is an avenue with yew trees on each side. This has now become a yew tunnel, where the branches of the yew trees have grown over the avenue to touch eachother.

Thomas Coke wanted the best statues he could get for the grounds of Melbourne Hall. He therefore appointed the Flemish sculptor John Nost to create various sculptures. John Nost created a number of sculptures from lead and stone for Melbourne Hall. These sculptures included beautiful sculpted flower arrangements and visually interesting figures from ancient mythology. John Nost also created a number of ornamental vases for Melbourne Hall. One of these, the Vase of The Seasons, is made of lead and was installed in the year 1705.

At one time Melbourne Hall was the residence of the William Lamb, who held the title of second viscount Melbourne, and was British Prime Minister during the nineteenth century. William Lamb held office as British Prime Minister during the year 1834, and later for a longer stint from 1835 to 1841.

Today Melbourne Hall is owned by Lord and Lady Kerr, who live there. Members of the public can visit the house to admire the impressive exterior architectural features, the lovely grounds and gardens, and the grand rooms inside. Melbourne Hall is a Grade II listed building, and the grounds and gardens feature around 20 structures that have the distinction of being Grade I listed.