Burton Constable Hall, the ancestral home of the Constable family, is an Elizabethan house set in open parkland. Sir Henry Constable began work on the vast red-brick house in 1570 and the building was completed at the beginning of the 17th century. The Constable family had been an important landowner in the flat agricultural area of Holderness since the 12th century and fragments a medieval building are incorporated into one of the corner towers of the Elizabethan building. The present appearance of the house owes more to the tastes of the Constable family in the 18th and 19th centuries but their alterations and additions were sympathetic to the original 16th century design.
In 1736 Cuthbert Constable constructed a Gallery on the irregular western side of the house and his son William, who went on three Grand Tours and became a Fellow of the Royal Society, continued the building work. In 1757 he began to remodel the east front and over the next 30 years he engaged a number of architects and craftsmen to complete the interiors and finish rebuilding the west front.
William Constable died childless in 1791 and the house was neglected until 1823 when it was inherited by Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable, another great traveller. Sir Thomas moved into the house and, encouraged by his first wife, sumptuously refurnished the building. On his death Sir Thomas left the estate seriously in debt, mostly caused by his second wife who purchased lavish furniture for her villa on the Thames. Much of these furnishings ended up at Burton Constable Hall but following her death there have been few changes to the house.
Today Burton Constable Hall is still the family home, but the house and contents are now owned by the City of Leeds and the Burton Constable Foundation has been established to maintain the property.
Burton Constable Hall is situated in open countryside and to the south is the massive red-brick stable block created by Timothy Lightoler in 1769-71. In 1722 - 73 the south end of the house was closed off by a service courtyard added by 'Capability' Brown, who also landscaped the park.
Although the symmetrical west front incorporates 16th century work at the southern end, most of the facade was created at the same time as the stables in the style of the original building. The entrance front still retains the low two-storeyed wings added to the original house for domestic offices and lodgings in 1610 but the main block was given an extra storey by Lightoler in 1759-60.
The entrance was also moved to a new central position and a open pediment at the centre of the facade displays William Constable's coat of arms.
Burton Constable Hall has 30 rooms open to visitors and the impressive interiors contain collections of paintings, prints and English furniture.
The Hall was remodelled by Lightoler and has a neo-Elizabethan ceiling with heraldic corbels. The room contains an interesting portrait of William Constable and his sister, dressed in togas, by the Viennese court painter Anton Maron. The fireplace, designed by John Cheere, is flanked by niches containing statues of Hercules and Demosthenes. The scogilola tables here were designed by Domenico Bartoli who worked on the house in the 1760s.
The Dining Room was created from the medieval parlour in 1767 and is virtually unaltered. The painted ceiling by Giuseppe Cortese was inspired by Herculaneum, and the aspidal east end contains a plaster figure of Bacchus created by the plasterer William Collins. The same craftsman created the bas-relief in an oval plaque over the chimneypiece on the south wall, depicting Bacchus abducting Ariadne.
A vast cantilevered main staircase, created by Lightoler, leads to the first floor. The walls of the staircase are hung with a collection of family portraits and neo-classical paintings.
The Gallery, which still retains its frieze of the 1730s, occupies most of the first floor on the west front. The room was extended to its present 110 feet by William Constable who used it as his 'Library and Philosophical Room' and carried out his experiments here. In the 19th century it was converted into a combination of library and living room by Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable. Most of the elaborate furniture here, including a pair of marble-topped sphinx tables dated 1815, was introduced by Sir Thomas.
A doorway from the Gallery leads into William Constable's 'Museum'. This is one of the most complete 18th century scientific collections to survive in Britain and the cabinents are full of scientific instruments, geological specimens and shells.
Also on the first floor is the Gold Bedroom, with a collection of late-18th and early-19th century gilded furniture and the King's Suite of three rooms which has an impressive set of Chippendale furniture in the Drawing Room.
After several more bedrooms, the back staircase leads to the private Roman Catholic Chapel, formerly the Billiard Room. The Chapel was designed by Thomas Atkinson of York in 1774 and was repainted in vivid colours by Taylor Bulmer in 1844.
The Ballroom on the west front was created by James Wyatt in 1775-76. Although Wyatt's neo-classical ceiling decorations and mirrors can still be seen, the room was redecorated by Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable in 1840. He introduced the gilded Chippendale furniture around the walls, the Piranesian chimneypiece by John Bacon and the portraits of his Clifford ancestors.
At the centre of the west front is the domed Blue Drawing Room which was designed in 1783 by Atkinson. The two rooms to the west, the Red Drawing Room and the Chinese Room, date from around the same period. The Chinese Room has Chinese wallpaper and elaborate Chinoiserie furnishings added by Sir Thomas at a later date.
Returning to the Staircase Hall the former servants' corridors and Butler's Pantry can be visited. The service area contains the Display Room which has an collection of family papers, including the designs of some of the rooms at the Burton Constable Hall.
Burton Constable Hall is set in 300 acres of parkland landscaped in the 1770s by 'Capability' Brown. Beside the west front is a formal garden with statuary created in the 1820's. Picnic tables and walks by the lakes and park.
