Visit
The House

In the sixteenth century, this was the central section of the Tudor Great Chamber and until the 1920’s the whole room was lined with tapestries. The remaining tapestry of Joseph receiving his brothers was made in Brussels before 1629.

The ceiling dates from around 1600 from a design by Serlio and over the fireplace is a painting of Princesses Albertine and Henriette of Orange by Gerrit Honthorst.

In 1572 Sir Edmund Brudenell wrote in his diary ‘laid the foundations of my haul at Deene’ enlarging the Great Hall to its present size and appearance.

The panelling on the east wall is decorated with the coat of arms of Edmund and his wife with an unusual frieze of an arabesque pattern.

Stained glass showing various family coats of arms was installed in the early seventeenth century and safely restored in 1959 after being damaged in 1943 during World War II.

A variety of striking portraits adorn the walls of this most impressive Great Hall.

Built on the site of the old service wing, the Bow Room is the first of a sequence of rooms added to the south elevation of the house in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.

This room now contains the Brudenell Tresham library from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Many of the books belonged to the 1st Earl of Cardigan, who was infuriated when his whole library was taken away to London by Cromwell’s troops after they sacked the house in 1643. He was obliged to buy them back, luckily mostly intact.

This room used to be hung with pale blue silk, a fragment of which remains, but following the occupation of troops during WWII the silk covering was in tatters.

When the room was redecorated in 1966 it was too expensive to have the old silk copied so wallpaper was used.  The gilt fillet used to cover the nails holding the silk in place was reused indicating what it would have looked like in its original state.

The picture over the fireplace is of Mary Tresham, wife of the 1st Earl of Cardigan.

Housing a picture over the fireplace of the 7th Earl of Cardigan on ‘Ronald’ his charger leading the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 by de Prades, the Dining Room is a celebration of the family history which forms the backbone of Deene Park.

Along with many other paintings and historical pieces, The Dining Room contains a sword presented to Lord Cardigan in 1856 by the ‘Noblemen, Gentlemen and Yeomanry of Yorkshire in admiration of heroic conduct.’

The White Hall was built to provide access to the first-floor rooms added by 5th Earl. Containing several pictures of the 7th Earl of Cardigan and his second wife Adeline, the White Hall showcases memorabilia relating to the Crimean War, including the head and tail of Ronald, the 7th Earls charger, who lived for 18 years after Balaklava.

A large group portrait by James Sant commemorates the 7th Earl describing the Battle of Balaklava to Queen Victoria and the Royal family at Windsor in January 1855.