Inside Burton Constable Hall

By Janet Gleeson

Published: Thursday, 03 November 2022 at 12:00 am

Two huge dragons, each one the size of a well-built man, clamber up the windows, their gilded tails spiralling down the window bay. Beneath them, smaller dragons twist across an outlandish chair, rearing from the floor, eyes glaring across the back splat.

Another beast, bat-like wings outspread, supports the lantern in the centre of the room, while yet more perform handstands to guard a bell-fringed shelf of exotic ornaments, and serve as tie-backs to the curtains at the door.

Even before you enter the whimsical Chinese Room at Burton Constable, there is a sense that fantasy rules and nothing is as it seems. ‘It’s impossible not to love it – it’s a whole world and it’s wonderful,’ says Rodrica Straker, a descendant of the Constable family, members of which have lived here for 700 years.

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The rambling house that lies on the flat plains of East Yorkshire, 10 miles from Hull, was Rodrica’s home during her childhood, and she now lives in the south wing. ‘Not many children grow up in such an eccentric sprawling house as this, and it was magical,’ she recalls.

For her father, John Chichester-Constable, who inherited the house in 1963, the building presented a challenge rather than a playground. On the verge of dereliction, Burton Constable had suffered from wartime requisition – German bombs had blown out windows and doors, and the roof was in a perilous state of disrepair.

Determined to save the family home, her father enlisted the support of English Heritage and embarked on a lengthy programme of restoration. In 1992 the National Heritage Memorial Fund bought the house and parkland and set up the Burton Constable Foundation, an independent charitable trust that continued the restoration.

Although work is still ongoing, these days Burton Constable’s future is safe and it ranks as one of Britain’s most fascinating yet forgotten country houses. With more than 30 rooms open to the public, original Elizabethan architecture combines with overlays from later centuries.

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A fusion of ‘Jacobethan’ and rococo elements and family portraits characterise the Great Hall. Carved oak boughs and laurel garlands above the fireplace frame the scagliola Constable armorial shield. The figures in the niches are by sculptor John Cheere and depict Ancient Greek orator Demosthenes and the demi-god Hercules.
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The rambling house, home to members of the Constable family for 700 years, lies on the flat plains of East Yorkshire, 10 miles from Hull.
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The walls of the Chinese Room are hung with Chinese wallpaper and silver bells. The painted glass lantern hangs from a locally carved giltwood dragon.
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Stencilling on the door of a china cupboard and below the dado rail add to the rich overall effect. A 19th-century ebonised and gilded occasional table serves as a stand for an arrangement of oriental ceramics.
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William Constable’s remarkable cabinet of curiosities includes a vast array of fossils, shells, rock, botanical and zoological specimens, mostly acquired in the 18th century, as well as assorted scientific instruments.
‘Embellishing my place with taste and propriety and magnificence,’ was the self-stated mission of William Constable, who lived here in the 18th century. As a member of a recusant Catholic family, William was barred from public office. Anxious to present himself as a man of status and refinement, he sought advice from James Wyatt and Capability Brown (who designed the park).

Eventually he chose architect Timothy Lightoler to give the house a fashionable makeover, moving the front door of the Elizabethan Great Hall, but embellishing the rooms with an 18th-century vision of 17th-century-style details.

William patronised many leading craftsmen of the day, among them Thomas Chippendale. His fondness for classical antiquity lies behind many of his acquisitions. In the Dining Room, a pair of panther-topped cellarets are fashioned as classical sarcophagi, and the walls are embellished with stucco panels revealing Bacchic scenes.

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William was also a passionate amateur scientist and the Museum Room holds the most complete cabinet of curiosities in any British country house. Cases brim with rocks, fossils, minerals, shells and a rare equatorially mounted telescope made by one of the most highly skilled, but uncelebrated clockmakers of the 18th century, Henry Hindley of York.

‘We still don’t know how he managed to create such amazingly accurate instruments,’ says the hall’s curator, Kelly Wainwright.

Subsequent members of the family followed William’s collecting lead. Among the most important items of furniture in the house is a pair of early 19th-century tables with marble tops by Giacomo Raffaelli and sphinx bases by Giuseppe Leonardi.

The tables were brought back by Sir Clifford Constable and his wife Marianne when they visited Rome during their honeymoon. On their return, the couple redecorated the Great Drawing Room, installing an extraordinary ottoman sprouting an enormous gilded palm tree.

It was Marianne and her sister Eliza who created Burton Constable’s most imaginative interior – the wonderful Chinese Room. ‘Marianne designed the dragon chair,’ says Wainwright. ‘It was carved by a local craftsman who was serving his apprenticeship and walked here every day from Hull.’

A holiday in Brighton had inspired the sisters to try and create their own exotic domain. A confection of Japanese lacquer, Chinese wallpaper, Indian ornaments, oriental porcelain and a cornice of silver bells, juxtaposed with carved dragons, helped them to succeed spectacularly.

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Bacchus, god of wine and hospitality, provides the fitting decorative theme for the Dining Room. The relief panel over the fireplace shows Bacchus and Ariadne, daughter of Minos. A plaster figure of Bacchus stands at the far end. The mahogany table and chairs were made by John Lowry in 1768. The chandelier and wall sconces date from the 19th century.
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Originally designed by architect James Wyatt with furniture supplied by Thomas Chippendale, the Great Drawing Room was opulently redecorated in 1840. The extraordinary ottoman with a vast central palm tree and a family portrait of Eliza Chichester by Claude-Marie Dubufe were commissioned at this time.
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Despite its deceptively Elizabethan appearance, the Long Gallery ceiling and frieze were installed in the 19th century. Nearly all of the chairs also date from this time. The sphinx table made by Giuseppe Leonardi (base) and Giacomo Raffaelli (marble top) c1810, was bought in Rome while Sir Clifford and Marianne were on honeymoon.
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The giltwood tester bed in the Gold Bedroom was bought by the family in 1773. The room takes its name from the embossed Edwardian wallpaper. The upholstered-seat furniture and a screen decorated with painted glass panels date from the 19th century .
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A lavishly carved giltwood mirror and firescreen typify the opulent high Victorian taste of Sir Clifford Constable and Marianne.