A council house fit for country gentlemen once more

From Saturday, visitors can see newly revamped Sewerby Hall, where the clock has been turned back a century to 1910 when the landed gentry were still enjoying life on the outskirts of Bridlington.

Two decades later the furniture, fittings and all, went in a six-day sale leaving few clues for its present-day council owners, apart from an album containing 10 photographs of rooms which may have been intended for a Country Life article.

The black and white shots of the interiors have since formed the basis for a meticulous restoration.

One wing of the house has gone back to being servants’ quarters, complete with a housekeeper’s sitting room and servants’ hall.

A door leads through to the family rooms and a completely different world. Furniture from the Victoria and Albert Museum has been used to return drawing rooms and a billiard room to the elegance Yarburgh Lloyd-Greame “the last of the classic country house gentlemen”, would have known. The billiard room has a 12ft by 6ft table, a gift from local maltsters Muntons.

Lloyd-Greame, the house’s last private owner, was forced to sell the “too big and unwieldy” house in 1934 in the face of death duties and dwindling agricultural rents.

The powder blues and apple greens of the paintwork and the fine carpets and furniture of the bedrooms upstairs, have a lightness and freshness of touch, which contrasts sharply with the servants’ quarters in olive drab.

“They weren’t going to lavish the best paint treatment on the servants’ quarters – the darker it was the less it would show wear and tear,” said curator Janice Smith, who has researched and designed many of the carpets.

She and her colleagues can be sure that the paint is close to that actually used on the walls in 1910 after the original surface of the paint was taken off and analysed by experts at Lincoln University.

Most of Mr Lloyd-Graeme’s paintings were sold in the sale, so substitutes as close to those in the photographs in the album, have been sourced from Leeds City and Beverley art galleries, with the gaps plugged by works on the national Museums Association’s disposal list.

The revamped hall aims to offer activities for young and old.

From September, children coming on school trips will be able to take part in a variety of activities, including helping cook make food in the magnificent kitchen with its coal-fired range, copper-lined sink and wooden butter churn.

They will be able to play with toys, make beds with hospital corners and get a sense of how tough it was to be a servant.

At the turn of the century the family of just four were looked after by 11 staff who could work for up to 18-hour days, in a time without labour-saving devices.

“The concept of physically hard graft without washing machines, without refrigerators and all the conveniences of modern-day life might be a little eye-opening,” added Ms Smith.

“My Sewerby” a brand new memory wall will be looking for contributions from older visitors.

Ms Smith said she hoped the house would have a “wow” factor for their visitors: “We have restored the beating heart of the country house estate.

“A lot of people know about the restoration and will hopefully come back again as we roll our events out as it is offering something different for virtually every member of the family.”