So often in the preservation and restoration of Knebworth House we are chasing our tail. In almost all cases we are working to put back what was once there, or to patch up what is there so that it lasts a little longer. Most disheartening is when restoration work that we have already completed starts to fail, as has happened recently with the north-west tower. The render that was replaced in the 1990s cracked in the hot dry weather last summer.
So I am especially delighted, this month, to celebrate the completion of an improvement to Knebworth House! The Watchman’s Tower was restored externally a year ago, but since then we have been waiting for oak from our woods to dry so that we could construct an internal staircase. Before the Second World War there were floors inside the Tower, and probably wooden ladders connecting them – but we can comfortably say that there was never anything as beautiful as the new oak staircase that has now been designed and built for the Tower by Chau Lee and Andy Singleton (www.ecovril.com), who live in Knebworth Park. It is a stunning piece of work.
All the materials have been sourced from within a few yards of Andy and Chau’s home (all but the Yorkshire rope handrail), and all the work done locally – including the iron bannisters which were fashioned at Nup End out of an old Estate fence, reuniting the iron with wood it has lived with for generations! Chau and Andy’s work is a triumph. I encourage you to come and admire it this summer. Progress!
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
staircase with bannisters
source materials
Chau
Andy