GRIMSTHORPE CASTLE

The Chinese Drawing Room offers a mixture of classical, rococo, Gothic and Chinese elements. Each octagonal recess is of a different design, executed by the plasterer, William Perritt of York, who worked at Grimsthorpe in the 1760s. The exquisite Chinese wallpaper was hung in 1811, complemented by the Chinese fretwork, redecorated in its current striking black and gold scheme by Eloise, Countess of Ancaster in the 1920s.

The Vanbrugh Hall was created by Sir John Vanbrugh in the early 1720s for the first Duke of Ancaster, its dramatic proportions are a masterclass in elegant symmetry. A series of giltwood chandeliers made for the first Duke float in the cavernous space below the domed ceiling, illuminating the marble busts of Roman emperors and ancient gods who survey the scene from on high.

The Tapestry Drawing room is one of the original Tudor rooms, where Henry VIII held a council meeting during his stay at Grimsthorpe in 1541. Remodelled in the 1920s by Eloise, Countess of Ancaster, when the Soho tapestries which now adorn the walls, were brought with other furnishings from Normanton Park before its demolition. In this room are currently five thrones as part of the Coronation Exhibition. These thrones are perquisites of the Lord Great Chamberlain who was entitled to claim furnishings from the House of Lords which were no longer required. This practice ended when the Palace of Westminster was rebuilt after a fire in 1834.

The Tapestry Bedroom is named after the three Brussels Teniers tapestries of country scenes which hang in this room, the curtains and bed à la polonaise incorporate very fine rose-point lace, reputedly the gift of Queen Anne of Denmark when she stayed at Grimsthorpe in 1611.

The Tudor South façade is an unexpected marriage of architectural styles, contrasted by the Baroque splendour of the principal north front, the final masterpiece of Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. In 1516 Grimsthorpe and its lands were presented by Henry VIII as a wedding gift to William, 11th Lord Willoughby de Eresby and his Spanish bride, Maria de Salinas, lady-in-waiting and confidante of Henry’s Queen, Katherine of Aragon. Through many different titles bestowed upon their descendants over the last five hundred years – the ownership of Grimsthorpe has remained in successive generations of the same family united under one ancient title, the Barony of Willoughby de Eresby.

The Chapel is in a surviving pavilion of the late seventeenth-century front, which Vanbrugh raised and refaced. The original ceiling appears to have been retained intact: much of the boldly modelled plasterwork appears to be seventeenth-century, although elements like the ducal coronets and cherub heads were probably added later.

The Castle is open on select days, April to October, starting at £9 an adult. Visit www.grimsthorpe.co.uk romantic dreamily intimate or daringly different here you can et your imagination run wild.