Wolterton Hall, Norfolk, part II The former home of Keith Day and Peter Sheppard
THE 18th-century writer, connoisseur and creator of Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole, was not an admirer of his uncle and namesake, the builder of Wolterton. In his correspondence with friends, the younger Horace makes numerous allusions to the dirtiness, meanness and poor taste of the older. He did quixotically, however, think very highly of his uncle's country seat. It was, he suggested, 'one of the best houses of the size in England'.
As described last week, Wolterton was completed in 1741 under the direction of architect Thomas Ripley. Walpole's qualification over its size was a comment on the way in which the building had been conceived; not as a conventional country house with spreading wings, but as a compactly planned building.
That original house was both enlarged and adapted in the subsequent ownership of the Walpole family, who proved determined custodians of it through a difficult 20th century. As illustrated in the present article, however, the house reflects a transformation brought about since 2016 by its recent owners Keith Day and Peter Sheppard. They sold the house last year and this article is a visual record of the remarkable interiors they created.
Following the death of Wolterton's builder in 1757, the property passed to his son, yet another Horatio or Horace. He had married a daughter of the 3rd Duke of Devonshire, Lady Rachel Cavendish, and was ennobled in 1806 as Earl of Orford. This title had previously been bestowed on his uncle, the statesman Robert Walpole, and had become extinct with the death in 1797 of his youngest son, Horace Walpole of Strawberry Hill.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
