Category: Charlecote

This is a rather interesting bird’s-eye view of Charlecote Park from a perspective which is commonplace now, but which was a little less usual at the time, although some landowners liked being able to see the extent of their land and the grandeur of their properties. The painting is located in the Grand Hall of the building and it’s thought to have been painted in around 1696. The gardens have changed somewhat as this formal style, which I rather like, was removed by Capability Brown in the 1760s and then changed again in the 1820s. The artwork has been credited to the Dutch artist Jan Stevens (?-1722) as he painted numerous other artworks in this style, but there’s no evidence that he actually painted this one. But, in the absence of any other information, it might as well be attributed to him. I’m not sure that’s how an art historian would think, but I’m not an art historian so that solves that one.

Here’s a better image of the house as it once looked. It shows the core Elizabethan house built by Sir Thomas Lucy I in the 1550s, before the significant Victorian alterations undertaken by George Hammond Lucy and his wife Mary Elizabeth from the 1820s onwards.

I think it’s quite intriguing to see a room in a National Trust property looking like this. This is the dining room at Charlecote House and it’s a key room in the property, reached from the Great Hall. This section of the property isn’t part of the Elizabethan core, it’s part of the west wing extension that was added in the 1830s by George Hammond and Mary Elizabeth Lucy.

And here’s the problem, they’ve had a leak. As the signage notes, there was a small leak from a gutter which led to a leak that went unnoticed until the wallpaper started to peel off the wall and mushrooms started to appear. I was visiting the property with Richard, who is on his big diet, and reading that managed to make him hungry. He’s distracted by anything even vaguely food related at the moment….

That’s their issue. Although it’s worth noting the rather impressive ornate plaster ceiling in the room.

They’re on the second stage of fixing the rather sub-optimal arrangement.

I rather like that they’ve decided to keep the room open so that visitors can see the work that is ongoing. The wallpaper is by Thomas Willement, it’s all a bit opulent for me, but I think that was likely the intention at the time.

It’s a huge undertaking to fix a relatively small problem, although such is the challenge in historic buildings. If this building was in private hands, the cost of the repairs would perhaps be too onerous, but it certainly looks like the National Trust are doing a thorough repair job.