The house is entered through a gateway in the wall off Ogleforth. This leads into a lobby added in 1906. A doorway leads into the garden. Beyond is the ENTRANCE HALL, a very stylish room with white and black marble floor and striped patterned wallpaper. The small ticket desk is here, with the steps to the basement behind it.
A passageway leads to the WEST SITTING ROOM. The panelled walls are painted emerald green and the fireplace with its gilded figure of Leda and the swan was moved here from another room. In a small alcove off is a small ivory and ebony games table which came from north east India.
Steps lead up from the passage way into the GREAT HALL, which must be one of the most impressive rooms in the house. An upper floor was removed, opening it up to the rafters. This effectively split the house into two halves with the dining room and king’s bedroom above completely separate from the rooms on the other side of the great hall.
It has bare stone walls and a white and black marble floor. The fireplace is again set on a raised stone dais and has chairs and a small table in front of it. The windows overlooking the garden have small roundels with medieval glass.
A wooden staircase based on the one in nearby St William’s Hall gives access to the timber from minstrel’s gallery above. The relief ornament was added in 1922, based on designs from Knole House in Kent.
Beneath the minstrel’s gallery is a massive oak table dating from about 1600 which was made from a single tree trunk, cut down the centre to form two planks. A doorway leads into the DINING ROOM with its C18th wood panelled walls and elaborate plaster ceiling, the only one in the house.
Lighting was provided by a central chandelier with candle sticks on the walls. The fireplace is also C18th although Frank Green probably added the over mantle with its painted picture.
The room feels bare as Frank Green took the dining table and chairs with him when he left the house to the National Trust. There are two glass fronted display cupboards containing a selection of cups an saucers and decidedly over the top tea pots.
A doorway at the far end of the Great Hall leads to a lobby with the splendid WILLIAM AND MARY STAIRCASE off it. This was installed in the early C18th and has been little altered. The portraits were bought by Frank Green from a sale at stately home and are not family ancestors. The hand blocked wallpaper was added by Frank Green and was made by Watts and Co and is described as ‘Malmesbury’.
Two doorways lead off the lobby, one to the Court Room, the other to the Blue Drawing Room.
The BLUE DRAWING ROOM was the principal room of the house and where Frank Green entertained important guests. This was two rooms when Frank Green bought the house, but he removed the partition to make one large Regency style room and repositioned the fireplace. The rather oppressive peacock blue walls picked out in gold were Frank Green’s choice. Plenty of mirrors help reflect light into the room. Around the fireplace are pale cream upholstered chairs.
The highlight of the room are the boule writing desk with its brass and tortoiseshell inlay and two small cabinets. These glow in the sunlight. The technique was devised by André-Charles Boulle in the early C18th and is referred to as Boulle marquetry. He usually worked with brass and tortoiseshell. Boule cut out patterns in the chosen material, producing two pieces referred to as the ‘part’ and ‘counterpart’ and produced two pieces of furniture that were mirror images of each other. In one, the copper sat on a background of tortoiseshell. In the other, the tortoiseshell is on a background of copper.
The other room is the COURT ROOM, so called because it overlook Grey’s Court and a courtyard. It is reached either from the lobby or the Blue Drawing Room. This is a small elegant room with pale grey panelling and a small fireplace with cast iron fire back.
The room is dominated by a model ship in a glass case. The ship was made French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars using animal bones. It has 132 guns and eight anchors. Frank Green bought this in very poor condition and paid a retired naval captain from Deptford to restore it for him in 1912. It is a beautiful piece of work. The ship has no name and may be a model of a Portuguese ship. The case was made specially for it.
There are more pictures “here.”:http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/stately_homes_castles/england/north/treasurers_house/index.html
