These pages were produced by Roy Mat for his Wilford & Clifton Index in 1997
	Other Clifton Hall Rooms

       The 'Great Chamber', October 1997
The 'Great Chamber'

Next to the Page's Roomis a large, rectangle shaped room that has the feel of a grand banqueting hall.  Dark Oak panels circumnavigate the room, broken only by the fire place.  There are rumors that a secret passage leads from behind one of the panels down to the Church.  The walls are summited by a row of plaster figures, faces and emblems meeting the ceiling.  The ceiling itself is decorated with more plaster images, some of them quite large and a little crude in form.  The sand coloured  plasters contain no other colour other than the ocasional faded ring of yellow-gold.  The ceiling appears to be under some sort of restoration work as a number of small identifying stickers have been placed all over it.  Cracks have also been filled in with a brighter, more recent plaster mix.  I can't help thinking that the ceiling was probably once more brightly painted in line with many of the other rooms in the building.   The room is estimated to have been constructed in its present format in 1632.  There is a picture taken from the ceiling on my Clifton Family  page presumed to show the face of Gervase 'The Gentle'.
 
 

Two Examples Of The Plaster Objects At The Top Of The 'Great Chamber' Walls. Note The More Recent White Plaster Work

The Chamber  Fireplace

One Of The Ceiling  Plaster Designs.

^{Newly Discovered Paintings}

^{A set of paintings were recently found on bare boards in the hall.  They are a little faded and a horse picture appears not to have been completed.  They look 19th century and one has a vaguely Rudyard Kipling feel about it with a ferocious looking tiger and lion fighting over an unconcious woman.  They have been mounted in an otherwise unremarkable ground floor room, now serving as an office.  Since they are on bare planks of wood they were perhaps the work of a servant in the hall or stables.}
 

Dominating The Main  Staircase Is A Bill Board Sized Picture Of Robert Clifton