Four months of painstaking paint restoration is now complete at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, with visitors now able to see the work for themselves since the Hall’s re-opening last month.
The double-height Great Hall had been suffering from flaking paint for a number of years and the Kelmarsh Trust was very keen to conserve the current paint scheme as it is attributed to renowned decorator John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster, the doyenne of the English country house
Four months of painstaking paint restoration is now complete at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, with visitors now able to see the work for themselves since the Hall’s re-opening last month.
The double-height Great Hall had been suffering from flaking paint for a number of years and the Kelmarsh Trust was very keen to conserve the current paint scheme as it is attributed to renowned decorator John Fowler and Nancy Lancaster, the doyenne of the English country house style, who lived at the Hall.
In November 2015, paint specialists Crick-Smith of Lincoln were appointed and conservators set about injecting powerful water-based bonding agents behind the flaking paint and then carefully ironing flat the flakes. Areas of loss were filled and touched in to match the existing and 60 years of smoke and dirt was cleaned off using conservation techniques.
The project, which cost approximately £115,000, is the latest conservation programme to be carried out by the Kelmarsh Trust, which was set up to protect and conserve the Grade I listed country house and its surrounding gardens and parkland. Kelmarsh Hall is a historically significant building that was built in the Palladian style in 1732 by Francis Smith of Warwick to a design by James Gibbs, an eminent architect who trained in Rome.
Invited guests recently attended a celebratory event on Sunday 10th April to mark the re-opening of the Hall following the restoration work. Visitors can see the conservation project for themselves as Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens is now open for the spring/summer season – for full details of opening times and admissions visit www.kelmarsh.com or call 01604 686543.
Events in 2016 include a National Gardens Scheme opening in May, Storytelling in the Garden for children in August and a two-day Dahlia Festival in September.
Kelmarsh Hall is located just off Junction 2 of the A14, on the A508 between Market Harborough and Northampton.
