A Gradual Descent into Darkness

Tags

Attingham Park, Chandelier, collection, Lighting, Mansion, National Trust, Silver, Sultana Room

Here is the second instalment of the history of lighting at Attingham. Our small exhibition on lighting will be on display on the First Floor until the end of May.

Chapter 2: A Gradual Descent into Darkness (1832-1861)

In 1832 Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick died and his brother William inherited the title and became the 3rd Lord Berwick.

William, 3rd Lord Berwick inherited Attingham following the two bankruptcy sales.

William had spent the previous 25 years as a diplomat in Italy and brought back to Attingham his stunning collection of ambassadorial silver which he got to keep as a perk of the job!

Silver gilt candelabra made by Paul Storr c. 1808-1810, London

Silver gilt centrepiece candelabra by Paul Storr c. 1814, London

He also brought to Attingham some fine French objects such as ormolu candlesticks made by Thomire of Paris, an exceptionally fine goldsmith employed by Louis XVI and Napoleon.

French Empire ormolu candelabra made c. 1810 by Thomire, Paris.

William was faced with a house that had lost some of its contents due to the bankruptcy sales and so he began a programme of re-furnishing the interiors. William held the title for ten years and then it passed to the final brother, Richard, a clergyman who ‘swallowed more wine than any other man in the county’ and was also rather excessive in his spending.

Richard, 4th Lord Berwick had been a rector on the estate when he inherited in 1842.

Only six years later, Richard died and his son, another Richard, became the 5th Lord Berwick. He lived at Cronkhill, an Italian villa created by John Nash two miles from Attingham Hall.

Richard, 5th Lord Berwick bred his prize herd of Hereford cattle at Cronkhill and did not live in Attingham Hall.

Upon his death in 1861, an inventory was taken of the contents of the house. This inventory is important as it gives us an insight into Attingham following the bankruptcy sales. It is clear that in 1861 the house was equipped with few light fittings compared to the house in 1827. William, 3rd Lord Berwick furnished the house in a sumptuous fashion and so it would follow that the light fittings would have been equally as sumptuous. However, the lack of quality fittings, apart from his silver candlesticks and candelabra, indicates that they were sold or moved elsewhere after his death.
We believe that six white marble candlesticks mounted in brass were purchased by William and two remain in our collection today.

White marble candlestick made in Naples c. 1790.

It would appear from the inventory that he also introduced the 12 light chandelier that hangs in the Sultana Room today. The original chandelier having been moved to the Drawing Room after the bankruptcy sale (see last week’s post).

The Sultana Room chandelier, originally a gasolier made in England, possibly by Osler c. 1830-40.

This new chandelier is actually a gasolier and before making its way to Attingham, would have been lit by gas. Although gas lighting was first installed in Britain in 1812, it was often not taken on by many country houses as a separate gas works  had to be constructed. Attingham was never lit by gas and this chandelier was later converted to be lit by electricity.

Yet, despite these few fittings, the house must have descended into gloom following the death of William, 3rd Lord Berwick in 1842. Look out for the next post to discover how the house was lit during the time of the 6th Lord Berwick.

Saraid

An Embarrassment of Riches

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Attingham Park, Candelabra, Chandelier, collection, history, Lamp, Lighting, Lord Berwick, Mansion, Picture Gallery

As part of the roof project we have had to take down the Picture Gallery chandelier and so this has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to give it a good clean. So for the next two weeks we will be focusing on lighting at Attingham from the 1780s when the house was first built, right up to the present day.

Maureen Dillon, Lighting Advisor to the National Trust, produced a report in 2007 on the development of lighting at Attingham. We have used her report to create a small exhibition using objects from our collection. Over the next few blog posts, we will immerse you in the world of lighting at this large country house.

Chapter 1: An Embarrassment of Riches (1785-1832)

Attingham Hall, the new house was not finished when Noel Hill, 1st Lord Berwick died in 1789.

Noel Hill, 1st Lord Berwick built Attingham Hall but never saw it completed.

His eldest son, Thomas, inherited the tile and spent lavishly on Attingham’s interiors in the early 1800s. Thomas was declared bankrupt in 1827 and there were two sales, one that year and one in 1829.

Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick went on the Grand Tour in the 1790s and then spent extravagantly on Attingham in the early 1800s.

The 1827 sale catalogue provides a fascinating insight into the contents of Attingham during its heyday. At this time, the house was lit by a considerable number of highly expensive candle and oil fittings that were the height of fashion in terms of design. Many of the fittings were decorated with neoclassical motifs, for example vine leaves and grapes, rams-heads and sphinxes, that were popular in the Regency and Napoleonic period.

There were six cut glass chandeliers at Attingham in 1827 and they were of the tent and waterfall design.

This chandelier with 18 lights originally hung in the Sultana Room.

The chandelier which hangs in the Drawing Room today hung in the Sultana Room in 1827. It has 18 lights and the Drawing Room would have had 36 lights and the Boudoir had 12 and they were all of the same design.

There were a number of pairs of candelabra of neoclassical designs. In Lady Berwick’s Sitting Room and Morning Room there were pairs of swan-head design candelabra. We believe that the 8th Lord and Lady Berwick purchased the ones we have today to reflect those which would have been in the house in 1827.

Bronze and ormolu candelabra with swan head detail c. 1800.

In 1827 there were also four pairs of candlesticks with Egyptian female figures which may have looked similar to those currently on display in the Drawing Room.

French Empire candelabra with female bronze figures c. 1810.

There were also chamber candlesticks and snuffers. Cheaper tallow candles would have been used in the servants’ areas and expensive beeswax or spermaceti (from the sperm whale) in the formal rooms.

Silver chamber candlestick, London 1804.

Silver scissor snuffers, London 1794.

Lord Berwick also had a reading lamp with a slide candle and shade, perhaps for use in one of his library rooms. These types of lamps first came into use in the 1740s.

Sheffield plate lampstand with adjustable candle holder.

Lord Berwick’s wife, Sophia had harp lessons and her music stand, located in the Drawing Room, has fittings to hold two candles.

Regency music stand belonging to Sophia, wife of 2nd Lord Berwick

The 1827 sale catalogue also mentions a great deal of match pots. Friction matches were not invented until 1828. If these match pots are lighting related objects they may have been used to hold spills and tapers with which to light candles. The match pots were located in formal rooms, dressing rooms and bedchambers, usually in pairs made from materials that included, white china, pink and gold paper, and black and gold India paper.

Many of the formal rooms at Attingham, such as the Octagon Room and Picture Gallery, were fitted out with many expensive Argand lamps which were invented in 1783 and produced a great deal more light than candles. They were fuelled initially by spermaceti oil and then as demand for the oil increased, by colza oil from rape seed.

Reproduction bronze and ormolu Argand lamp chandelier in the Octagon Room.

The lamp in the Picture Gallery would have produced 120 c.p. (candle power) which was a great deal more than the Drawing Room chandelier at 36 c.p. with its 36 candles. In fact the sale catalogue also lists ‘two Eye Shades, for viewing pictures’ to cut out the glare!

Watercolour of the Picture Gallery c. 1840.

Nonetheless, by today’s standards even rooms lit by a number of Argand lamps and candles would have appeared dim and the greatest single source of light would be that from the hearth fire. Illumination was therefore increased by the use of mirrors, gilding and cut glass.

Pier glass in the Drawing Room made for Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick.

This is just a small selection of the light fittings at Attingham in 1827. Thomas, 2^nd Lord Berwick had the best in design and new technology and no doubt his footmen were very busy making trips to the Lamp Room to keep them all maintained!

The footmen at Attingham would have been busy keeping all the lamps in good order.

The next blog post on lighting will detail the aftermath of the bankruptcy sales. If you have chance, come and see our small lighting exhibition on the First Floor which will be up until the end of May.

Saraid

A Very Picturesque Villa

Tags

Attingham Park, conservation, Cronkhill, history, John Nash, Lord Berwick, National Trust, Through the Roof

During my first week as an intern here at Attingham I was asked to come and help out with an open day at Cronkhill a place I had read about but never seen! Cronkhill is an Italianate villa built on the Attingham estate between 1802-1805. It was paid for by the 2nd Lord Berwick for Francis Walford, his Estate Steward and friend, and was designed by architect John Nash who also created the leaking Picture Gallery we are conserving with the Through the Roof Project. The house is now still owned by the National Trust but is tenanted and so is only open for a few days of the year and luckily I was around on one of these.

Many of the conversations I had with people whilst I was there was about the beautiful views from the large windows in the drawing room and from the outside of the property and this made me think more about the picturesque positioning and style of this lovely house.

A photo of Cronkhill from Attingham’s Archives

John Nash built in a variety of styles from castellated at Luscombe in Devon, to the Tudor of nearby Longner Hall and the Eastern inspired opulence of Brighton Pavilion. Cronkhill is important as it is an example of an Italian style of villa which emulated the buildings in the landscape paintings that were popular with the Eighteenth Century grand tourists, such as the Second Lord Berwick himself. Pictures of an idealised Italian countryside placed buildings within the landscape, making them almost a feature of it. These ideas about the relationship of building and landscape were reflected in writings of theorists of The Picturesque movement in the late eighteenth century. This movement was a hugely important and influential force and it changed not only the way houses were designed and built but how they were lived in. Richard Payne Knight was one of the most influential figures in this period and believed that

 “the best style of architecture for irregular and picturesque houses… is that mixed style which characterises the building’s of Claude and the Poussins… built piecemeal, during many successive ages.”

Nash was one of the foremost designers of this new style of architecture, of the irregular house set within the landscape, and no type of house more embodied this than the villa.

The Landing of Aeneas at Planteum by Claude Lorrain. An example of a ‘Claudian’ landscape made popular by Grand Tourists.

At Cronkhill Nash incorporated an earlier timber built farmhouse into his designs, altering the pitch of the roof and the shape of the windows to blend it with the new building which included a prominent round tower and an eye-catching loggia. It was the complete opposite of the classical and symmetrical Attingham Mansion below; it had no symmetry and so it was more picturesque! The villa was set on a hillside, overlooking countryside and the river, with spectacular views from the windows and loggia to the countryside beyond. The internal layout of the house reflected this with the prominent dining and drawing room all with large windows overlooking the landscape, and the arches of the loggia almost framing the landscape as though it were a painting. Cronkhill was also placed within the landscape to be seen by those around it, perhaps even as an ‘eyecatcher’ from Attingham Mansion. You can imagine how striking it would have been to people who saw it in the early 1800s, an Italian villa in the middle of the Shropshire countryside!

Investigation work on the round tower at Cronkhill. The brown strip down the tower is the uncovering of layers of paint.

Cronkhill is even more interesting to visit at the moment because it is undergoing planning for some conservation works. The house has a problem with damp which is caused by the external plastic paints which stop the house from ‘breathing’. The application of these paints to stonework and ‘Roman’ stucco can stop the natural movement of moisture and create damp areas within the building. Recently paint analysis has been done on the exterior of the tower to see what Nash originally intended and also the best way to remove the most recent external paint layers. The picture above shows the trials done on the tower and a full video of this can be found on the Attingham YouTube channel by clicking here .

One of the most fascinating things was the uncovering of a blind window, or “bulls eye window” in the tower, a black window just painted on. This new phase of works also throws up some interesting questions over the future of the building as it is viewed from the outside. Two early images of Cronkhill show its intended colour was not the white it is painted today but a more natural stone colour, just like the Claude pictures that inspired it. One is a drawing by Nash himself and the other a representation of Cronkhill in one of the paintings in the Attingham collection. The long-term plan is to reinstate this original sandy coloured lime wash which will benefit the building and show Cronkhill the way it was intended.

Cronkhill today with its white exterior.

Cronkhill historically with its more stone coloured lime wash from a painting in the Attingham collection. What would you do? Leave it? Paint it white again? Re instate the stone lime wash?

But of course the best way to appreciate Cronkhill is to visit for yourself and see the relationship of this beautiful villa with the landscape around it. We’ll be there again on Friday 10th of May and Sunday 12th May  from 11am – 4pm so come and have a look for yourself and for more information click here.

Poking around in the Portico Store

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8th Lady Berwick, Attingham Park, Berwick, Chandelier, collection, conservation, Georgian, history, Lighting, Mansion, National Trust, Picture Gallery, Through the Roof

What do a meat mincer, a Baron’s coronet and a box of Regency tassels all have in common? … Well we can tell you one answer… they are all items among the many we have in storage here at Attingham! For the past few weeks the House Team have been spending the odd free hour up in the Portico Store, as we call it, working on reorganising our collection. The Portico Store is one room right at the top of the Mansion, actually over the front Portico, in which we store some of the precious items in our collection and textile archive.

The Portico Store with rows and rows of archive boxes.

Some of these items are just too fragile to be on display and so have to be carefully stored away most of the time. This includes much of the costume in our collection and delicate remnants of fabric from different periods of Attingham’s history.  Up in the store the humidity, temperature and light levels are all well controlled and provide a stable environment for sensitive items. We do however try to get things out for people to look at whenever possible. Last year the Baron’s surcoat and coronet formed a part of our “Hidden Lives” display which also saw some of Teresa, 8th Lady Berwick’s costume being brought out and displayed in the main show rooms of the Mansion.

The coronation robes on display as part of our Hidden Lives exhibition last year.

Over Christmas we also took the opportuity to have some more of the 8th Lord and Lady Berwick’s costume displayed, including the 1760s sack back dress worn by Teresa as fancy dress. We are in the process of planning a new “Hidden Lives” display for the summer months which will highlight more of the fascinating objects in our collection and their stories.

The pink sack-back dress brought out for Christmas 2012 and now carefully packed away to protect it.

For now though, we have been working to organise the storage space up in the Portico store. We know which collection items are up there because of the inventory system that we use. The National Trust’s Collection Management System (CMS) means that every item has an inventory number and can be electronically traced via a huge database to individual rooms in the house. This is a fantastic way of monitoring our collection of over 10,000 objects! However it becomes more complicated when we get to the Portico store which is stuffed full of boxes and objects. For the last few weeks therefore we have been carefully assessing what we have in this space and organising it into categories to make it easier to find. We are also checking for condition and inventory marks as we go and finding some really interesting things which we thought we’d share with you.

My favourite find so far has been little glass fruits believed to be c1900 Venitian glass which were carefully wrapped in bubblewrap and acid free tissue paper in one box.

Beautiful glass apple we found up in the Portico.

Did you know that you can search the whole of the National Trust’s collection online by clicking here? On the National Trust Collections website you can see parts of the National Trust’s collection that aren’t on display and find out more about them.

Here at Attingham we have been organising the lighting objects up in the Portico first, finding lamps and shades and candles and putting them all in one location. This has been our first focus because shortly, we are going to use some of the objects as part of a two week display about the lighting of Attingham over the years. We will be showing all the differnt ways Attingham has been lit and getting some of our hidden treasures out of store for you to see!

An oil lamp c1890 with a cut glass oil reserve.

As part of our lighting fortnight we will also be cleaning the Picture Gallery chandelier which has been taken down because of the Through the Roof Project.  As we were searching through one box of bits in the Portico we came across a few of the droplets from this chadelier which appear to have fallen off in 2003 but can hopefully be re-attached now.

The bagged droplets from the Picture Gallery chandelier. It’s a good thing we never throw bits away!

Come along and have a look for yourself from the 13th May – 26th May as we take you through the Attingham light years and continue our work conserving the Picture Gallery and its contents as part of the Through the Roof Project.

Getting Materials into a Mansion- Not as easy as you’d think!

Tags

Attingham Park, Berwick, conservation, John Nash, National Trust, Picture Gallery, Through the Roof

A big building project such as Attingham Re-discoverd Goes Through the Roof  is never easy and it is made even more complicated when happening at the centre of a Grade I listed Mansion. With every step and development we have to be extra sure that we are protecting the historic fabric around us as we go.

Whilst the work is going on to install the new secondary roof above the Picture Gallery we have had to think carefully about how to protect the important historic fabric below. We need to ensure that if anything did go wrong there would be no damage to the cast iron and glass roof we are working to conserve, or to a person of course! Over the next few weeks the Norman and Underwood team of contractors will be putting protection in place. This will mean effectively boxing-in the Regency roof with wood to protect it against any possible damage.

The planned protection of the curved Nash Roof (the lighter blue section)

Physically working on this project is extra challenging because the Picture Gallery is at the centre of the Mansion and so access to its roof is difficult at the best of times. The space is enclosed on all four sides by other parts of the building and the 1970s roof inserted by the National Trust makes access to the Regency roof even harder. This week the team of contractors have had to use a different way of getting materials to where they needed to be, without bringing it all through the historically sensitive interiors of the Mansion.

John Nash’s cast iron and glass roof, with the exterior wall of the Mansion to the left and 1970s glass roof above showing just how tricky access is. (All pictures are by Richard Knisely-Marpole our adventurous Roof Project volunteer).

To get the materials into the Mansion therefore we had to be a little creative! This meant putting a tower scaffold on one half of the portico and bringing everything in through a first floor window.

The tower scaffold on the Portico, an unusual sight!

Materials were taken in carefully through a window.

Once the materials were inside the Mansion they then had to be taken through one of the First Floor rooms, out the other side and through another window before being used to protect the Nash Roof.

In through the window and into the First Floor.

Through the window on the other side and out onto the Nash Roof.

The first bit of boarding on, and an illustration of just how tight the space is to work in!

John Nash’s cast iron and glass creation which has allowed light into the Picture Gallery for over 200 years will now be boxed-in over the next few weeks so that it will not be damaged during the works above it. A section of it will be covered in perspex rather than wood so that visitors can still see the innovative structure which is being protected. Visitors on our Roof Tours over the next few weeks will get the opportunity to see this work as it goes on, so come along and have a look for yourself as we protect the cast iron roof.

 

 

Contractors and Craftsmen- Now and Then

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Attingham Park, conservation, Contractors, history, John Nash, Mansion, National Trust, Through the Roof

The contractors who will be working on the Through the Roof Project for the next 46 weeks or so have arrived on site. They have begun the preparations for the project which will see a glazed secondary roof inserted into the heart of the Mansion to protect the leaking John Nash cast iron roof over the Picture Gallery. Their storage compounds are being set up (luckily the sun is out for them) and they will begin to move materials into selected areas of the Mansion from tomorrow. This will be a small feat in itself, as acess to the site where they will be working is limited -  we can show you next week how they are going to do it !

The compound in the Inner Courtyard.

Contractors’ compound in the Outer Courtyard.

Activity has really begun as preparations continue, ready for the project to go ahead. The presence of builders, surveyors and architects around the Mansion can make us think of how Attingham would have been when the Picture Gallery was originally built 1805-07 for Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick. We can imagine it would have been a busy place with workmen and materials everywhere, all working to get the ambitious project finished within two years.

We are lucky that our archives hold many of the details of the men who actually constructed the Picture Gallery. We even have two lists of the names of the “country Gallery Bills” and amounts paid which tell us the local craftsmen who worked on the project.

List of country tradesmen who built the Picture Gallery under the directions of architect John Nash.

We know from these bills that John Simpson of Shrewsbury and his team were responsible for the brickwork and construction of the Gallery. They would have also been involved in taking down the exising Grand Staircase behind the current Entrance Hall which once stood where the Picture Gallery now is. One bill dated 6th April-18th May 1805 includes

6^th April 1805: “At Attingham Hall Taking down Parapatt Walls, Taking down Stair Case, Cutting out Banisters &cea”

From other bills and accounts we can know for example that from 5^th April 1806 to 16^th August 1806 John Simpson charged a total of £48.12.6½ mainly for his men’s lodging and labour and some bits of materials.

John Birch’s Bill for painting done to the Picture Gallery dated 11th August 1808.

From the bill above we can see that John Birch charged £75-14s- 8d for the painting work done to the Picture Gallery “under the directions of Mr Nash”. This included,

“Inside of skylight to grand staircase.  2 Cts white”.  5/6.

“Painting Iron work to Ceil^g in Picture Gallery.  Lab^r & Materials”.  7/0.

“French Painters Bill for Colours for the Picture Gallery”.  £2.8.6½.

Other documents of bills and recipts show us that carpentry work was provided by John Lee; plumbing work by Robert Hill; the glazing by John Betton; the smaller wrought iron components and related labour were provided by John Farnall and plastering by John Whitford. These documents are fascinating sources of information for us and a real insight into how the Picture Gallery was constructed and by whom!

In its day the construction of the Picture Gallery at Attingham would have been an ambitious project and not only because of its innovative use of cast iron to light the internal space. Nash intended to alter not only the Ground Floor through taking away the Mansion’s existing Grand Staircase and adding the Picture Gallery and his own Grand Stairs, but also structurally altering the First Floor rooms used by Lord and Lady Berwick. The bills also show that “extra works” were carried out throughout the project and extra costs were incurred, but with such a big project it could be expected.

Details of extra works done by John Simpson, builder of the Picture Gallery.

We can keep this in mind as we start our own Through the Roof Project, as the contractors and craftspeople move on site and start work. Just as it would have been when the Picture Gallery was constructed from 1805, some areas around the Mansion may look different for a while but this will be an exciting time in the history of Attingham. We would like people to come and see what our contractors are up to, and how we are working to look after the Picture Gallery which was constructed by the builders and craftsmen of 200 years ago.

Busy Behind the Scenes… we promise!

Tags

Attingham Park, Berwick, Drawing Room, Mansion, National Trust, Through the Roof

Although all may be quiet on the outside with the Through the Roof Project we have not been resting on our laurels, I promise! Behind the scenes a team has been beavering away carrying out investigations in the Picture Gallery, analysing samples and using these to inform what we are actually going to do when it comes to the conservation of this space.

 It has been a few weeks now since a team spent a day on the scaffolding investigating the Picture Gallery ceiling. That day however they made some exciting discoveries about the decoration of that floating ceiling which we are now trying to conserve. Click here to see our previous post for more information on what we found.

Early photo of the Picture Gallery from our archives.

The earliest photos we have of the space show that decorative  border as it is now; one single rectangle around the main ceiling bed. Investigations under raking light however showed us that an earlier decorative border did actually exist and was still under layers of over painting!

Picture taken by Andrew Bush paper conservator showing the older border visible under raking light.

   

Our painting conservator Annabelle Monaghan revealed some of this scheme by removing layers of paint.

The small section of the revealed border.

 She took a small sample of the paper border on the ceiling and these have been preliminarily analysed over the past few weeks and also sent off for detailed investigation by a forensic art historian. From looking at the samples taken from the border Annabelle has found that the hidden border has four layers…

1. Preparation layer

2. Base layer for original stencilled border

3. Original stencilling

4. Very thin transparent paint layer

 This border was at some point painted over with a creamy oil paint. This oil paint can be removed with a scalpel. Another over paint layer  of white distemper (water based paint with pigment) can be gently removed with water.

The ceiling of the Picture Gallery has now been covered with a protective pad which will support it throughout the duration of the building work that goes on above. However having that window of time to get up and get samples from the ceiling and reveal the older scheme has meant that we now we now can begin to understand the physical evidence in order to inform the actual conservation and potential re-decoration work. But it leaves us with some big questions over what to do next!

The giant pad which has gone up to support the ceiling. Fantastic photo by Richard Knisely- Marpole

In other Mansion news we thought you may all like to see the Drawing Room here at Attingham without the drugget we use to protect the carpet. For two mornings, before our visitors arrived, the Drawing Room was the star of its very own photo shoot! The pictures taken by the photographer will hopefully be used in an upcoming book. So here’s a few of our own photos with how the room looked.

Rolling up the drugget.

We wear protectors on our shoes to protect the historic carpet.

Making the room look its best

The Drawing Room without its drugget.

It’s all coming together…

Tags

Attingham Park, collection, conservation, Mansion, National Trust, Picture Gallery, Through the Roof

The Through the Roof Project has been quieter for the past few weeks as we appointed contractors and began to set timescales of work, but the Mansion itself has been nice and busy. With the sun finally peeking out over the Bank Holiday weekend we have had lots of people coming through the Mansion and seeing what we have been up to over the winter. It has been great to see people’s positive reactions to the Picture Gallery with its scaffolding and dramatic lighting, and really engaging with the project.

The scaffolding in the Picture Gallery from a completely different angle taken by Richard our volunteer photographer.

We are however still working on the displays and information in the suite of rooms on the first floor. After you walk through the Picture Gallery and up the Nash Stairs you find yourself on the landing of the first floor with its recently uncovered Regency wallpaper scheme.

Part of the uncovered wallpaper scheme leading to the first floor.

On this floor are rooms that were once bedrooms for the family and then later dormitories for the college that used Attingham from the 1950s. From the windows on the corridor at this level you can also get eye to eye with John Nash’s roof.

View of the Nash Roof from the first floor corridor.

We believe that Nash made alterations to this first floor level of the Mansion during his works to build the Picture Gallery 1805-07. His Schedule of Works mentions alterations to this level to create a new corridor and that

“The bedchambers which will be altered and reduced by taking off the passage of communication to have their partitions doors floors linings & skirtings plastering & cornices made good and restored ready for papering—”

 

An image of a wall on the first floor showing the beams we believe Nash cut through to create a corridor.

The rooms on this level have recently been opened to visitors of the Mansion, and we currently use the space for display and to give you more information about the building and the Berwick family. Over the winter we have been redesigning the displays in these rooms so that they reflect the work of the Attingham Re-discovered Project and give more information about the Through the Roof phase. This week the banners for the walls of the “Nash Room” (the room all about John Nash and his building of the Picture Gallery) have arrived and have been hung.

Part of the display in the Nash Room.

We still have a bit of work to do up here for the displays to be complete but it’s great to see it all coming together!

Two Architects- Two Roofs- 200 Years Apart

Tags

Attingham Park, conservation, history, John Nash, Mansion, Picture Gallery, Through the Roof

Last week a big step in the progress of the Attingham Re-discovered Goes Through the Roof Project occurred; we appointed a building contractor! Finding a company to build the new secondary roof over the Picture Gallery has been an ongoing process. Tenders were submitted and then reviewed, companies interviewed and then interviewed again to make sure we got it just right. With a big project like this you have to make sure you get the right people in the right place and at the right time.

Some of the high level plasterwork around the top of the Picture Gallery.

The process of selection of the current project team can make us think about how Thomas 2^nd Lord Berwick went about choosing the people he worked with to enable the creation of the Picture Gallery in the early 1800s. The architects we have used for the project in the 21^st century have a connection with the property already, having carried out Quinquennial (five yearly) surveys on the mansion before.  Lord Berwick had also worked with the architect of the Picture Gallery before it was built in 1805-07. He had drafted John Nash in to design the villa at Cronkhill on the Attingham estate by at least 1802, so Nash already had a working connection with the Berwicks.

The Picturesque villa at Cronkhill designed by John Nash c1802.

We aren’t sure how Lord Berwick came to commission Nash but it may have been through the landscape gardener Humphry Repton (1752-1818) who remodelled the park here at Attingham in 1797. Both practitioners of the Picturesque aesthetic movement, Repton and Nash had a business partnership up until around 1800.  The already well-established landscape man Repton would recommend Nash to his clients for any building work they wanted doing for a commission fee from the architect.  It could be that Repton recommended Nash to Lord Berwick and Berwick then commissioned Nash, firstly to design the Picturesque villa at Cronkhill and then the Picture Gallery at the heart of the Mansion.

Thomas 2nd Lord Berwick (1770- 1832), who commissioned the Picture Gallery.

It could also be that Nash’s reputation as an architect for designing and remodelling country houses went before him. Nash had an interesting career, varying from the failure of his first speculative building which led to his bankruptcy in 1783, to the heights of his profession as unofficial architect to the Prince Regent, apparently in “great favour” by 1813. At the time that he was working at Attingham, Nash’s speciality was in country houses rather than the large-scale urban and royal projects he would later be renowned for, such as Regent’s Park and Regent Street (planned 1811) and Brighton Pavilion (1815-23). Together Nash and Repton had built up a good reputation for their work such as Southgate Grove, Middlesex 1797, Luscombe Castle, Devon c1800, and Casina in Dulwich, 1797. Nash was becoming one of the most fashionable architects of country houses and he became adept at giving his customers exactly the designs they wanted for the exciting Regency age. Find out more from our Curator Sarah Kay and her talk on the two creators of the Picture Gallery, John Nash and Thomas 2^nd Lord Berwick, by viewing our You Tube channel here.

Through archival evidence we know something about the men that Nash and Lord Berwick used as their ‘contractors’. The craftsmen who physically built the Picture Gallery and provided the materials left bills and receipts now in the Attingham archives as clues to the creation of this Regency space. Their work however needs a blog post all to itself!

One of the bills from our archives which tells the story of the construction of the Picture Gallery.

Our architects have been working on a solution to the flawed design of John Nash, and the selection of contractors is the next step in assembling the team who will implement these plans. In the next few weeks a schedule of works will be finalised, and the work to install the secondary protective new roof can start.

The latest image of how our new roof will protect the Regency John Nash roof below.

Come and see what we have been doing so far and find out more about the plans the contractors will be implementing. The Mansion opening times can be found here and our lovely volunteer Roof Guides are based in the Picture Gallery to tell you more about this fascinating project. We’d love to see you there!

Fishscales and Fluting- Investigating the Nash Stairs

Tags

Attingham Park, Berwick, collection, conservation, Georgian, history, John Nash, Mansion, Nash Stairs, National Trust, Picture Gallery, Through the Roof

Over the past few weeks the scaffolding in the Picture Gallery has allowed us to access new heights in the Mansion! The scaffolding has also been assembled in the adjoining Nash Staircase, getting us up close to the high spaces in there too.

These grand stairs were part of Nash’s redevelopment scheme at Attingham 1805-07. In deciding to put the Gallery at the very centre of the house, John Nash made some radical alterations to the existing layout of the 1^st Lord Berwick’s Palladian Mansion… most crucially wiping away the main staircase.

The Entrance Hall we all know today would have looked quite different before Nash and 2^nd Lord Berwick began to alter the house in 1805. Firstly it would have been a different, lighter colour… the current marble paint scheme was commissioned by 2nd Lord Berwick.

The Entrance Hall as we see it today.

There was also a second fireplace in the room, standing on the wall opposite the remaining one to keep the Palladian symmetry, but this was removed at the same time to create stairs down to the basement for the servants to use.

The stairs down to the basement and the empty wall where the fireplace was removed.

Most noticeably however, the room would have been much bigger! When you walked in the front door the hall would not stop at the wall opposite as it does now, it would have extended behind the green scagiola pillars and revealed a grand staircase beyond. This staircase was removed by Nash and the space used to create the present Picture Gallery.

One of George Steuart’s designs for the Entrance Hall showing us what it may have looked like before 1805.

A cross section of the Mansion as Steuart designed it 1782-5. The Grand Staircase with its domed roof on the right was the part removed by Nash in 1805.

However, taking away this staircase left Nash with a problem, there was now no main route up to the first floor rooms. As part of his designs therefore Nash included his own grand staircase; the Nash Stairs we know today.

Looking through the Picture Gallery doors to the Nash Stairs beyond.

The cast iron dome which lights this staircase in dramatic fashion is also a part of the conservation work planned for the Attingham Re-discovered goes Through the Roof project. Although this dome has been altered slightly over the years, it has the same issues of condensation build-up and water ingress as the Picture Gallery it joins to. Water leaking through has caused damage to the historic fabric of the mahogany handrail below. It therefore has also had scaffolding put up to protect the space and visitors as work goes on above.

The partially scaffolded Nash Stairs.
Picture by our Roof Project Photographer Richard Knisley-Marpole.

This space has some of the fantastic internal decoration which Nash brought to Attingham, and the scaffolding gives the team the opportunity to get up close to it and begin to answer the questions surrounding what conservation work is to be done.

One of the most eye-catching and unusual features of Nash’s design is the fish scales which adorn the domed ceiling. We thought before that these may have been put up in sections but can now see that each scale is individually applied! Our curator Sarah says

“They are a bit like mini roof tiles, laid one on top of the other in graduating sizes, again like roof tiles which get smaller towards the top. They range from about 4.5 inches high at the bottom to about two inches at the top. Incredibly precisely and accurately applied so your eye does not notice a jump in size anywhere. You can follow any diagonal line across them as they ‘swirl’ upwards and across the concave surface of the dome and the line is perfect. It is so far a mystery as to how this perfection would have been achieved…”

 perhaps you have an idea as to how the Regency craftsmen would have achieved this feat?

 Cleaning trials have also revealed different colour schemes underneath years of dirt. I’ve always thought of the tiles as being a greyish colour, but as you can see from this picture the paint below is more creamy, although this may not be the first scheme.

Cleaning of the Fishscales, showing the colour below.

Investigations on the fluted plaster walls of this circular space have also revealed that years of dirt sit above the red paint scheme but that this responds well to gentle conservation cleaning.

Carrying out conservation work on the interior of the Nash stairs and picture Gallery will form the second phase of work of the Through the Roof Project over the next two years. We are spending this time now carrying out investigations of the historic fabric as it is important to know what we have and what condition it is in before any decisions are made as to how to conserve it. Through seeing up close what John Nash and his craftsmen created, and understanding what effect time has had on their work, we can know the significance of what it is we are working with today. This helps us make the best decisions so that the historic fabric will be here for another 200 years and continue to be a part of the story of Love and Neglect of Attingham!