Time for an interior: this is Lyme Park, in Cheshire. When the estate was acquired by the NT in 1946, the house was handed over to the local council, and since there was no intention of showing the Library (the house is huge and the original visitor route was pretty abbreviated) the room was cleared and the Legh family sent many of the books for auction. It was subsequently used as a bar for public functions, and later refurnished as a Library, but in a rather half-hearted way. In 2008 we celebrated the Trusts acquisition of the unique 1487 Caxton Missal from Lyme by going the whole hog with the room. Textiles, carpets, fabulous neo-Elizabethan wallpaper, richly upholstered replica furniture were all commissioned based on detailed research - and the glittery brilliance of the Lewis Wyatt interior was reinstated. Its still not entirely finished, and if anyone has several hundred feet of really good sixteenth- to nineteenth-century folios to offer, wed love to remove the doors on the lower presses and replace them with books once again.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 10:01:14 +0000
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