Estate restored to its former glory

Estate restored to its former glory

A restoration expert works at Kirby Hall, near Corby

Fragments of wallpaper and flecks of paint have allowed experts to restore an historic home in Northamptonshire.

Restoration experts, who found fragments of old wallpaper under layers of emulsion paint, used archival evidence to piece together how Kirby Hall would have looked at the height of its use in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Finch-Hatton family left in the 19th century, unable to meet the rising costs of running the large country estate.

Its interiors had begun to deteriorate and had become hidden by years of redecoration and overpainting.

Project director Nick Hill said: "Until we began our investigations it had appeared for many years that little evidence remained of Kirby's interiors.

Mansfield Park setting

"We can now give visitors a sense of how these rooms were enjoyed in the late 17th and 18th centuries, as well explaining the significance of the colour schemes and decor."

Research suggests that blue had once been applied to the ceiling in the Great Hall - an extremely expensive pigment at that time.

The ceiling has been returned to what is thought to be the original blue and brown palette.

Nick Hill in the newly-recoloured Great Hall

Analysis in the billiard room found hundreds of red fibres indicating that the walls were once covered in a flock paper.

That was confirmed by an auction catalogue of 1772, recording the sale of red wallpaper from the room.

The Finch-Hattons had also painted some back rooms light brown to emulate oak, which was a fashionable treatment at the time.

But the walls had not been updated in a century when the family had a downturn in fortunes and the colour had fallen out of fashion.

Historians with English Heritage said that the family, with diminishing resources, had clearly chosen to focus on the principal entertaining rooms at Kirby Hall.

The Hall was the setting for the film adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.