In 2007 the World of Interiors magazine commissioned me to write an article on the interiors at Calke Abbey. My words were to accompany a set of wonderfully evocative photographs taken by Lucinda Lambton. One of...
READ MORE »Basildon Park, Berkshire
Basildon Park was built by John Carr of York for Sir Francis Sykes between 1776 and 1783. It is a beautifully balanced building of warm Bath stone consisting of a main central block joined to individual pavilions by...
READ MORE »Belton House, Boathouse
The restored boathouse I was commissioned to examine some samples of paint from the external basketweave pattern plaster as part of the recent restoration programme. The basket weave patterned plaster The...
READ MORE »Polesden Lacey
Polesden Lacey, Surrey, was once lived in by the poet and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (whose London house I have also worked on - see Hertford Street). In 1906 it was purchased by Mrs Ronald Greville, a...
READ MORE »Stourhead
The Stourton family, the Barons of Stourton, had lived in the Stourhead estate for 700 years when they sold it to Henry Hoare I, son of wealthy banker Sir Richard Hoare in 1717. The original manor house was...
READ MORE »Ham House
I have been employed on several occasions to advise on the treatment of external surfaces at Ham House. In the early 1990s I carried out trials with copperas washes on the quoins, which had been painted with a...
READ MORE »Hidcote Manor Garden
Hidcote Manor, near Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire was purchased, as a farm, in 1907 by Gertrude Winthrop, a widow. After serving in the First World War her son Major Lawrence Johnston took over the house and...
READ MORE »Kingston Lacy
Kingston Lacy is a 17th century country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, now owned by the National Trust. I was sent spectrophotometric data on the colour of a wall in the house and asked...
READ MORE »Uppark
Uppark is a 17th-century house in South Harting, Petersfield, West Sussex, and a National Trust property. It was built for the first Lord Tankerville c.1690 and subsequently sold to Sir Matthew and Lady Sarah...
READ MORE »Stowe, Buckinghamshire
Stowe House - North Front Stowe House is a magnificent Grade I listed eighteenth century country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It is the home of...
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