Roof repair lifts lid on Attingham Park's historic ceiling
Experts carrying out a £1.4 million project to fix a leaking roof at Shropshire's Attingham Park have been given a rare opportunity to carry out a close- up examination of the mansion's historic ceiling.
The roof of the National Trust-owned Georgian mansion, in Atcham near Shrewsbury, has been leaking for several years causing damage to the home's picture gallery.
The two-year project to repair the grade I-listed building will see a secondary roof above Nash's picture gallery replaced and glass domes above the grand staircase refurbished.
Renovators have removed paintings and precious collection items from the picture gallery to make way for scaffolding. A specialist team from Crown Fine Art has carried out the removal work.
Experts have also discovered the extent of the damage which the roof has suffered over the years. This includes cracks in the walls and missing pieces of gilding.
Decorations specialist James Finlay has also been looking closely at the ceiling to see if the current layers of paint are covering any decoration beneath.
Amy Rowe, from the National Trust, said: "Having the internal scaffolding in the picture gallery has given the team a really good opportunity to get up close to the decoration at the top of the space for the first time.
"Our curator Sarah Kay and a team of experts have scaled the scaffolding to have a look, and what they have initially found is very exciting."
The team spotted some initials and a date engraved onto the ceiling. They believe the words 'IN 1808' could be the signature of regency architect John Nash who built the iconic picture gallery and circular grand staircase.
Amy said: "Could this possibly be John Nash 1808? We don't know. It is an interesting discovery."
