Athelhampton - Part II

Athelhampton Great Hall is a masterpiece of fifteenth century domestic architecture.  

How exciting to discover that the timbered roof is more or less the way it was built before 1500. 

 You will recall the outside of the house and that oriel window in the corner. Here it is from the inside.  It would not have been in the corner originally, since the wing was added later.

This window contains fine tracery and sixteenth century heraldic glass depicting marriage alliances of the family.

It is this great hall I am using in the novel I have just completed, the Duke's Daring Debutante, though it is set much closer to London.  It has a lovely Gothic feel, and it is the site of one of Thomas Hardy's short stories The Waiting Supper.

This view of the fireplace gives such a wonderful perspective of the grandeur of this hall.  A truly magnificent and impressive space for its time. 

One can only imagine our Regency folks complaining of the drafts and the cost to heat it.

The linenfold panelling is particularly lovely in its delicacy.  

The tapestry above the fireplace is Flemish, "Sampson slaying the Philistines with the jaw bone of an ass." and is dated as late sixteenth/early seventeenth century.

An the piece de resistence as we artistic types like to say, the Screen.

This is set in the original position, though a later version and separates the Hall from what were the service areas, and of course the front door. 

It boasts a very fine George III mahogany and gilt organ on the minstrels' gallery above.

More to come, until next time