RESTORATION
The restoration of the series of ‘Great Rooms’ created by Colonel Francis Fulford in the 1690’s has taken over a hundred years. These rooms had been constructed by him within the Tudor and medieval walls with no regard to the structural integrity of the building. In order to achieve the grand rooms, he happily demolished retaining walls and cut through ties beams. The results were spectacular, but just over a hundred years later the chickens came home to roost and north wall collapsed, taking with it part of the Great Staircase and killing a workman.
The part of the house containing these Great Rooms was then shut down and they all fell into disrepair. For the next hundred years it was referred to as ‘The Ruin.’ My grandfather began to restore them in 1910, he had restored the Great Hall and the Great Staircase before the First World War intervened. However, due to a lack of money it was not until 1960 that further work was done.
My father had consulted the Exeter Cathedral architect who advised him that unless he carried out urgent repairs, the entire north wall of the courtyard would collapse. He applied for a grant to carry out the work from the then Historic Building Council but were turned down as the chairman, Lord Euston, future duke of Grafton, did not think the house was good enough!
With no grant, my father had only enough money to carry out the structural work the architect recommended, and little to spend on the interior decoration which was done on a ‘cheap and cheerful’ basis. In 2012, we decided to build on my father’s work and restore the Great Dining Room to something resembling its former glory. I was inspired to do this by discovering that one of the greatest exponents of plaster work, Geoffrey Preston, lived in Exeter. The resulting baroque ceiling which he and his assistants created is truly breathtaking.
In 2020, we turned our attention to restoring the Great Parlour and the Ante Room. These rooms had been altered in the late 18th century when the Great Parlour had been made smaller and the ante room larger before they too fell into ruination. We determined to restore them to their original dimensions, open up the blocked up French windows in the ante room, and panel the walls with bolection panelling. The result is brilliant and now, with the double doors linking the two rooms open, we have a combined floor space of over 1,300 sq. feet which means we can comfortably accommodate 130 people for a sit down dinner.
Of course restoring rooms is the fun part of the business. The boring part is doing things like rewiring the house, repairing the roof or re rendering the external walls. All these things we have done since 1988, but the depressing thought in my mind is that my heir will have to do them all over again in his lifetime!.
