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Architecture and Interior
 The
Abbey was originally built across the valley much as it stands
today, but covering a greater area. A Chapel was joined at right
angles to the north wall in an easterly direction and the Great
Hall on the south wall, forming an open courtyard. In 1704 Paul
Orchard carried out alterations to the southern end of the house
in the Queen Anne style. Later in the 1770s his son, the second
Paul Orchard, carried out a major reconstruction of the house.
The Chapel and the
Great Hall were demolished and he levelled the main body of the
house to the height of the cloisters on which he built three large
reception rooms with a row of guest bedrooms above. Along with
a classical Strawberry Hill facade the project was completed in
1779. In 1845 Sir George Stucley carried out further alterations.
The Drawing Room, Dining Room and Billiard Room were redecorated
and two bay windows were added.
In the Drawing Room he erected
linenfold panelling with a set of twelve murals above, depicting
events in history in which his forebears took part. The same theme
was continued in the Dining Room above the original Elizabethan
oak panelling, removed from the Great Hall and painted in Victorian
times.
The Little Dining Room is typical of the Queen Anne period and
the Library, designed by Meadows, is the most complete Regency
room in the house in the Strawberry Hill gothic style.
One of the main features
of the house is the Alhambra Passage with its vaulted and stenciled
ceiling. Sir George Stucley commissioned Sir George Gilbert Scott
to design this after he visited the Alhambra Palace in Granada.
 Evidence
of the original Abbey building can still be seen in the Basement
where the cloisters run the whole length of the passage on the
west side of the house. A few original doorways still remain
The Document Exhibition contains examples of the huge document
collection which was discovered in the 1950s. There are documents
dating back to 1160, many of great interest.
The Victorian and Edwardian
Photographic Exhibition contains material from the Sudan Campaign
of 1898, local scenes from the latter half of the 19th C, pictures
of country houses and house parties in the 19th C and reproduced
scenes from Sir Hugh Stucley’s diary of his visit to the Falkland
Islands in 1909.
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