We are proud to announce - new for 2012 - the Markenfield Hall Utility Room... open to the public for the first time this year!
But it's not just any old Utility Room. There are two small at the Hall that escaped the “modernisation” of the ground floor in 1569 and retain the original Mediaeval vaulting. Excitingly, it is believed that the two rooms that survived form the oldest part of the Hall and that they date from 1230.
Owner
Ian Curteis explains “a few years ago we were lucky to have a survey undertaken
by architectural historian Professor Andor Gomme. He believed that the Hall’s
Utility Room and the Vaulted Study next door date back to the days before the
Hall was extended to form the Courtyard you see today and that they were part
of a small Undercroft and had a small Great Hall above. The existing Undercroft
and Great Hall are much more modern - being completed in 1310!”
He
goes on to say “it is clear to visitors that Markenfield is very much a family
home - we have dogs, grandchildren and family clutter around on a daily basis.
The problem with living in a historic house is that you do run out of rooms
suitable to live in and that is how a very modern Utility Room comes to be in a
room that is approximately 782 years old - we simply don’t have the room to put
it anywhere else!”
A section of the report by the late Professor Andor Gomme can be read by visitors on the room sheet for the Utility Room - it makes for truly fascinating reading.
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