Barrington's sounds of memories

Nigel Giles in his former school

Barrington Court was the first property acquired by the National Trust in 1907 but was later leased to the Lyle family because it was such a drain on the charity's finances.

They dedicated a huge amount of money, time and effort restoring the building from 1920 to 1991 but later gave up their lease, handing it back to the National Trust, because of the cost of maintaining the house and garden.

Extensive work was carried out rebuilding walls, installing a wooden staircase and fitting oak panels salvaged from other stately homes around the country that were being demolished at the time.

Now an exhibition detailing the estate's history is being presented in a new way - by using sounds and peoples' memories to evoke the past.

'Freedom'

It wasn't just a house - it was a home not just for the Lyle family but for evacuees during the Second World War.

From 1939 until 1944 it housed Streete Court School in Kent but was renamed West Gate while it was at Barrington Court.

Nigel Giles was one of those children who moved to the stately home for three years from 1941 to 1944 when he was six-years-old.

"I didn't really like it; I didn't like the academic side, I was a bit dim I think.

"I loved the cricket and the rugby and the football - that was great and the freedom we had. We all had bicycles and we could cycle virtually wherever we wanted."

For Nigel and his classmates, the relocation was successful, as they could continue with their studies largely uninterrupted by the war.

"We used to go to Westport, and go into Barrington. It was a free life really.

"We didn't know the war was going on except in June when we saw the invasion fleet going over from Ilton airbase but otherwise we didn't know the war going on at all," said the 72-year-old.

'Toothpaste'

As with most boarding schools at the time, the school had its own matron who took charge of the children's domestic needs.

"She used to repair our socks and our clothes, of course with rationing you couldn't get new socks or clothes, everything had to be darned. She used to sit in this chair to keep an eye on us from misbehaving. We used to have feasts and things - with toothpaste. For some unknown reason, we used to eat toothpaste."

But she moved away and was replaced with a far more formidable figure.

"It was the later matron we had problems with. She would say if somebody was misbehaving, 'that boy needs beating' - you used to get beaten."

Apart from Nigel recounting his memories of Barrington Court, as one of the 'echoes' there will also be other interesting sounds unusual for a stately home from chickens to construction site noises and dance hall music, all related in some way to the building's past.

'Tangible things'

James Grousby, curator for the Wessex region of the National Trust, said: "We've made a very deliberate decision now that the house has come back to us empty not to furnish it immediately.

"As a curator we're thinking about the way we present houses. We want to ask our visitors of what they want to see, so the opening of the house again this year is an experiment.

"Broadly speaking what we've got is a theatre; this wonderful historic house that is full of memories that we can evoke in various ways.

"Either we can evoke in tangible things that we can see through furniture or pictures or we can evoke it in other ways - for example in sound and that's what the theme of this exhibition is."

The exhibition runs from 21 May 2009 to 31 October 2009 at Barrington Court, nr Ilminster, Somerset.