Newby Hall, near Ripon in North Yorkshire is one of Britain’s finest Adam houses. Originally built in the 1690s by Sir Christopher Wren, it was later extended and transformed, first by John Carr and subsequently by Robert Adam.
Thomas Chippendale was commissioned to furnish the interiors, most notably the chairs in the Tapestry Room, which remain upholstered in original Gobelins tapestry. This is the only known Chippendale suite to survive with its original covers, still in situ. The Tapestry Room is considered the most complete Chippendale interior in existence. Together with dining chairs, hall chairs, card tables and Pembroke tables, the furniture at Newby Hall forms one of the largest and most significant privately owned collections of Chippendale pieces anywhere in the world.
In the gardens at Newby Hall there are permanent dollshouse and teddy bear exhibitions. I only had time for one, so obviously went to the dollshouse exhibition. It is the collection of friends Caroline Hamilton and Jane Fiddick who have collected nearly 70 houses together in 40 years.
