The Barrel Room

This room is a complete contradiction, with its Jacobean ceiling, Tudor panelling and Elizabethan fireplace of 1585. The panelling and fireplace which incorporates the arms of John Lyttelton (1561-1601) and his wife Meriel Bromley, were salvaged from the old house where Stephen Lyttelton and Robert Winter, two gunpowder plot conspirators, were harboured and finally captured. The strapwork ceiling was designed by the 9th Viscount following the fire of 1925, and crafted by the British Guild of Plasterworkers.

The seventeenth-century domed Chancellor’s chest covered in leather and studded with brass nails and strappings pierced with crowns belonged to George, the first Lord Lyttelton and was given to him when he was Chancellor.

The west staircase contains many of the nineteenth-century family portraits including Lady Sarah Spencer, later Lady Lyttelton, and many of her fifteen grandchildren.

The portraits include one of Sir John Lyttelton who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth 1st and his wife Meriel Lyttelton.