The Berkeley family is an ancient English noble family. It is one of only five families in Britain that can trace its patrilineal descent back to an Anglo-Saxon ancestor. The Berkeley family retains possession of much of the lands it held from the 11th and 12th centuries, centred on Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, which still belongs to the family.
Jan Kip's aerial view of Berkeley Castle engraved for the antiquary Sir Robert Atkyns' The Ancient and Present State of Glostershire, 1712.
Detail of monument to Sir Maurice Berkeley and his two wives in the Church of St Mary, Bruton, Somerset.
The Arden family is an English gentry family that can be traced back in the male line to Anglo-Saxon landholders who managed to maintain status after the 1066 invasion of England by the Normans of France.
The Ardens mary an heiress of Sir Rowland Hill, publisher of the Geneva Bible
Underbank Hall, an Arden family property of the 1500s in Stockport
1795 engraving of Harden Hall, Bredbury, another Arden family property near Stockport