Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
The House
Once home to one of the United Kingdom’s finest Victorian novelists. The Grade II* listed neoclassical villa at 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, England, tells the story of a monumental restoration campaign.
Elizabeth Gaskell, the home’s most famous occupant, resided at the property with her husband William from 1850 until 1884. Best known for her novels Cranford, published in 1853 and North and South in 1855.
Step inside this historic home today, and you’ll find a museum and community space dedicated to the writer’s literature and legacy, but it seems the interior decoration has hardly changed…
The Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
In honour of victory at an Eisteddfod a bardic chair would be awarded, these chairs were the highest honour for a Welsh Bard and were highly decorated and carved wooden chairs that were commissioned specifically for each competition. This Welsh tradition is a deeply historical part of Welsh literary culture that is believed to date back as far as 1176. Hedd Wyn had won several of these chairs competing at local Eisteddfod but had narrowly missed out on the 1916 National Chair on grammatical mistakes, he was determined to compete again and come triumphant the following year.
Sadly, this peaceful, rural Welsh life was not untouched by the reaches of the First World War. Originally as War broke it was not necessary for all young men to enlist and especially if they were from a farming family as agriculture was essential to supporting the war effort. However, as conscription was introduced in 1916 and it became compulsory for all fit young men to enlist, even the farming families had to volunteer a son for the frontline. This meant in 1916, aged 29 Hedd Wyn volunteered to spare the fate of his younger brother Robert.
The Wallpaper
When Yr Ysgwrn was taken over by the Snowdonia National Park Authority various work and refurbishments were undertaken to preserve the history of the farmhouse itself and the intertwined story of Hedd Wyn. One part of this, and where Bruce Fine Papers gets involved, was the wallpaper.
Originally the entire farmhouse was completely covered in wallpaper, and this was especially prevalent in the kitchen where there were an incredible 26 individual layers of wallpaper on the wall. These wallpapers represented the decorative habits of the family from the early 1900’s up to present day and the family had even wallpapered around important items of furniture not wanting to move these precious pieces, really showing how well kept and preserved the property had been for decades.
Some of these pieces of furniture that had been carefully wallpapered around were the Barometer and the impressive Grandfather Clock. This Grandfather Clock was the wedding gift of Evan and Mary to each other, brought home carefully on the train and only just fitted into place in the low beamed ceilings of the kitchen and the Barometer was so carefully wallpapered around that it itself was embedded deep into the layers on the wall, almost fossilised into the wallpaper history of the house and the family.
As the farmhouse contained a dairy and the family often prepared produce from the land within it, which included the salting and drying of meat, wallpaper was chosen as the method of decoration as it better covered and protected the walls without showing the effect of the salt within the house.
Of the 26 individual designs of wallpaper that were discovered within the kitchen only one would be chosen to be the new wall covering for the opening of Yr Ysgwrn to the public. The decision for this wallpaper was left to the surviving family of Hedd Wyn. Gerald Williams gave this choice to his sister-in-law, as was the tradition in the family of it being the women’s choice when it came to the wallpaper.
A pink and green floral design was chosen, one of the layers that was dated to the same period that Hedd Wyn would have been living in the property. This floral design was made up of 9 colours requiring 8 prints upon each piece to build up the intricate design. We recreated the artwork from the original samples found within the 26 layers of the farmhouse and traditionally hand block printed the design which can still be seen up today adorning the walls of the kitchen.
