Markenfield is a rare survival - an early C14th house that has been inhabited for most of its seven hundred years. It did however steadily fall into decay, to be saved from ruin by the first Lord Grantley in 1761. Markenfield thus represents one of the first cases of historic building conservation at a time when it was fashionable to own a ruin, but not to conserve one .
The roof had fallen in by the early eighteenth century; that which can be seen on the Great Hall today was put on in 1761 by the same Lord Grantley who had been Attorney General and Speaker of the House of Commons.
The Chapel was restored between 1980 and 1985 under the architectural direction of Mr John Miller, who had to reconstitute the north wall as it was subsiding. He chose to treat the work as an architectural sculpture by using brick to turn the two tiers of arcading. In doing so he carefully avoided giving the impression that the new wall is merely a reproduction of an imagined medieval forerunner.
The North wall of the Chapel.
In the winter of 2003-4, following an archaeological survey, the massive fireplace was rebuilt in the Great Hall and now looks as it would have done from 1340 to about 1600. Before that, only a faint shadow of its shape was visible on the wall between the two windows on the Moat side.
The Library was added in the spring of 2005, following a winter of hard work for a local joiner-craftsmen and his team; and two local French-polishers. The Shelves will eventually house 5,000 books, including the Markenfield archives.
Photograph Courtesy of Simon Miles.
Much of the vaulting that gives Markenfield Hall its character on the ground floor is being revealed through the on-going programme of conservation and restoration work within the house.
