Step inside the impressive Baroque mansion of Dyrham Park. In this video, you’ll get a unique insight into the work that National Trust curators and experts are doing to restore the house back to its former 17th-century glory. Dyrham was once home to William Blathwayt, who transformed the house and gardens to what we see today. Blathwayt was Secretary at War to William III, and his travels and connections enabled him to use Carrara marble tiles and luxurious silk fabrics in the house’s renovations, some of which were Indian textiles imported through the Dutch East India Company. Experts at the National Trust are now working to restore the house to bring these historic features back to life. Internal conservation includes reproducing the colours that would have featured when Blathwayt was living at Dyrham. Thanks to the support of Little Greene, the National Trust can match the exact colours up and bring the history of this grand house to life.
Externally, the grand gates at the end of the Avenue are also being restored. These would have been used to welcome guests as they approached the house in horse and carriage. In the video, you can learn more about how the gates are being re-fitted after months of repairs. Dyrham Park has been used for the setting for many notable films and TV series. Pursuit of Love, starring Lily James and Andrew Scott, included scenes filmed in the Gilt Leather Parlour, which was transformed into a ballroom. Memorable highlights include Andrew Scott dancing around the Parlour at Dyrham in silk pyjamas. Dyrham also appeared as the Warleggan Town House in Poldark, starring Aiden Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson, and was used as the exterior of Darlington Hall in The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. It’s thanks to supporters and visitors that the National Trust can continue to restore and protect these historic places for everyone, for ever. #AntiqueRestoration
Hello and welcome to Dearham Park in South Gloucestershire, home of the Blathwaite family
built in the late 17th century. So today we'll be going on a behind-the-scenes tour to look at the
work that's been carried out over the last three years. It includes lots of structural repairs,
graining, redecoration and representation of the interior of the house. This is the Great Hall,
the focal point of the house, really the centre point of the house. It's believed to be the core
of the medieval house, it's still on the site before Dearham Park we know now was developed
around it. It had been redecorated in the 1930s as a white scheme, so all the joinery you can see
here was white and we've now redecorated it, repaired it and redecorated it back to this oak
graining. So all this that appears to be timber, it is timber behind it, softwood timber,
but it's then painted to look like oak so it looks much more rich. We've stripped back later paint
layers and then have done samples to to match with that and once those samples were signed off
then that's been then gradually painted across the rest of the room. So to grain the whole room
will take in the order of three months to do, so it's a slow and painstaking process but really
highly skilled. We investigated the original colour scheme so we did microscopic analysis of
all the different paints and we worked with our brand licensing partner Little Green Paint to
reproduce the matching colours for the ceiling in this room. We've also rehung these chandeliers
and they've now been wired so they are lit electrically and they haven't been hung in
this room since 2014. Today we're rehanging the paintings in the Great Hall including the family
portraits and this is the last stage of representing the room before it opens again to visitors.
Today we're refitting the wrought iron gates to the West Garden. They've been off for six months
for conservation so the gates have been rebuilt and all the masonry walls either side of the gates
have also been conserved. Thanks to the support of the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport
along with Historic England and through the Cultural Recovery Fund we've been able to restore
the gates to their former glory. This is the Tuftry Bed Chamber and in this room we've basically
repaired the floor, repaired the windows and shutters and redecorated. This was another room
with a white colour scheme so all the paneling you can see and the chimney breast was all white
and we've now gone back to a grain scheme that has the appearance of walnut which is the
kind of look in here so it's a much warmer colour and now really sets off the tapestries hanging on
the wall. Work will be carrying on through the rest of the year but rooms such as this will be
open from this summer and the Great Hall will also be open and a lot of the principal rooms
and the house is staying open throughout the renovations so you'll be more than welcome to
come along and see the work as it progresses. This is the gilt leather parlour, conspicuous by
having no gilt leather. As part of the project we're actually commissioning new leather panels
to hang on the wall so that'll replace wallpaper from the 1970s. We're now going back to a grain
scheme so that's why we've got these pink areas of undercoat and then the brown and then the
graining goes on top. Thanks for joining us today I hope you enjoyed your behind the scenes visit
to Durham to see all the work that we've been undertaking. Details of how to visit can be found
on our website and just to say thank you for your support and the support of our partners
makes this kind of thing possible and enables us to look after places like Durham Park
for future generations to enjoy.
