Hi, I'm Lynsey. I'm the Property Curator at Oxburgh Hall.
So Oxburgh is a really beautiful moated manor house situated in the heart of the Brecklands in Norfolk.
But it's looking slightly differently since around 2016. We've been undertaking one of
the biggest roof projects that the East of England has ever seen. And so today I'm going to show you around.
Show you what we've been up to and show you some of our secrets.
So I've brought you into the saloon which is arguably one of the most beautiful rooms at Oxburgh,
to really kind of share with you what we think is really significant about the place.
Oxburgh has always been owned by the Bedingfeld family. They've lived here since it was built
towards the end of the 15th century, and they still live here today. And through their ownership we get
a glimpse of different periods of history and how one family has weathered particular storms.
So moments like the Reformation, the Civil War, the Bedingfelds have played a part in that,
and their presence and their role is reflected within the house itself.
And it's also reflected in the collection. From the Tudor period we've got letters between
Bedingfeld family members and monarchs such as Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, the Privy Council.
And then we've got all the way through to kind of some amazing collection items like paintings, ceramics.
A really kind of fantastic insight into the family at different periods of time.
The Bedingfeld family have loved Oxburgh and cared for Oxburgh for over 500 years.
So now we as the National Trust have that fantastic opportunity to do the same and care for it and make it our home too.
So the roof project has given us an amazing opportunity to find out more about Oxburgh Hall
than really we ever had before. Alongside the conservation work we also undertook research into
the wallpaper, paint sampling, graffiti; historic graffiti that existed around the hall.
and all that was supported by the Sylvia Waddilove Foundation UK.
One of the really exciting things is that we also undertook a process of underfloor archaeology.
So as the work was happening we lifted up floorboards
and then we went through all the debris underneath to really kind of find all the secrets and
treasures that were hidden there. So I've got a few here to show you. So this one is some Tudor textile.
We think it's like a slashed silk, maybe it was part of a sleeve of somebody what they would have worn.
So we've also got this really cute one here. So this is a chocolate box from the 1940's.
So the chocolate is long gone but the wrappers still remain, and the person who ate them we think would
have hidden them away under the floorboard so they didn't get caught out.
So one of the most amazing discoveries that we we made as part of this was this 15th century illuminated manuscript.
It was discovered in a really bizarre way. It was actually found as part of a rat's nest, and anyone who works
with historic collections or buildings knows that rats are normally the enemy but here they really helped us out.
And we're able to conserve it, we did so very recently thanks to the Leech Trust.
And it presented us with a real kind of interesting conservation challenge because we don't want
to lose that story of how it was discovered and our gratitude of course to the rats.
But we wanted to make sure that it was stable and it was ready to go out on display.
So it's been surface cleaned and it's also been mounted so that it's a little bit more stable.
But you can, of course, still see where the rats have nibbled it. And we're going to get this out on display later this year.
Hi, I'm Dave. I'm the Project Manager for the Oxburgh 'Raise the Roof' project. We're standing here on
the west range. And behind me you can see the dormer window which came crashing down into the
courtyard in 2016 and started this entire journey for us.
At the start of the project we stripped off all the roof coverings and we've done extensive work to the timber structure beneath,
repairing the oak. Either replacing sections or incorporating sections of stainless steel to strengthen them.
With the dormers we've carefully dismantled all 14 dormers and then put them back together again,
trying to preserve as much of the historic fabric as we possibly can. We've also dismantled in a
similar way all 27 of Oxburgh's decorative chimneys. So each of the chimneys are completely different.
We carefully took them apart, templated each section, and then have put them back together again
with new bricks. You can see that the new tiles, new roof coverings are on the building,
and we've also done some work to the historic gatehouse to strengthen it.
What we've achieved at Oxburgh is thanks to the support from you, and also
from our funders, the Heritage Stimulus Fund and Wolfson Foundation,
and helping to preserve this building for future generations.
Here we are in the library. As we've been carrying out the conservation works to the roof
we've been carefully monitoring the building elsewhere to make sure that there is no
impact from the roof works lower down in the structure. And that has led to us discovering
some problems with deathwatch beetle attack just above the library.
Deathwatch beetle attacks the oak by burrowing into it and then consuming sections of the timber as part of its life cycle.
It essentially turns the oak into a honeycomb structure just full of dust.
To repair them we'll be cutting out sections which need replacing. We will also be incorporating steel supports.
We do this by cutting a channel down the middle of the beam so that we can introduce
a steel flitch that will support the timber moving forwards.
These kinds of discoveries are common on conservation projects of this type where there are always surprises,
and it illustrates how important it is to have your ongoing support when we're engaged in work here at Oxburgh.
So I hope you've enjoyed your tour today behind the scenes at Oxburgh Hall.
We just want to say a massive thank you to all our members, visitors, everyone that supports the National Trust
because thanks to you we can keep Oxburgh standing for future generations.