In 1968 Tapton House was classified by the Department of the Environment as a Grade II* listed building, considered architecturally and historically important. Because the history of the house to date covers a period of more than 200 years a wide range of research was necessary. This was done by correspondence, email, telephone, facsimile and personal visits to various sources. For example Chesterfield Library Local Studies, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the British Museum, the Science Museum, Elder Yard Chapel, Chesterfield Town Hall, Biwater's Clay Cross Co, to name but a few. In addition material was also generated from people who had been involved in the production of Memories of Tapton House School and who, like me, were interested in piecing together this historical jigsaw. My aim was to have one chapter per resident from the start of the building of the house in 1782 to the handing over of the estate to the Chesterfield Borough Council by CP Markham in 1925, followed by a chapter for each on its use as a museum, school and college. I believe that I have succeeded; apart from the three-year interval when it was a museum, details of which have mainly disappeared. Whether readers are Old Taptonians or merely interested in this lovely Georgian mansion I hope they enjoy this book, discovering as I did, the life and times of the people who shaped its history.