Stately home puts on it dancing shoes
Turning the abandoned kitchens at beautiful Birdsall House in Yorkshire into a super-cool events venue will help secure the future of this stately home. Sharon Dale reports.
TUCKED away in its own private valley on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, Birdsall House is a stately home in a sublime location that managed to remain a well-hidden secret for hundreds of years.
Built in 1540 and remodelled into a gorgeous Georgian home in 1873 by architect Anthony Salvin, it is grand but what sets it apart from many of its counterparts is its wonderfully calm and welcoming atmosphere. So much so, you can almost hear the property whispering “come on in and make yourself at home” whatever your status, lowly or high.
That is one of the reasons why after over 300 years of exclusive use by the Willoughby family, Birdsall House has been such a great success in its latest incarnation as both a family home for the Hon James and Lady Cara and their three children and an incomegenerating wedding and events venue with occasional film and photography shoots and classical concerts.
James and Cara opened the main wing of the house as a venue with six en-suite bedrooms in April 2018 to help the property pay its way. Grade II* listed homes with over 200 windows cost a small fortune to maintain and run, even with the help of modern additions such as an eco-friendly woodchip boiler helping to cut running costs.
“We knew the house needed to generate an income. The days when farming on the estate brought in enough money to keep a place like this alive are gone,” says Cara, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and a former graphic designer turned milliner.
There was only one issue with their plan and that was dancing. While weddings and events could be enjoyed inside the most beautiful part of the house, dancing indoors in the ballroom, dining room and state drawing room was strictly forbidden due to the fragile historic floors that could not cope with vigorous stomping.
Cara says: “We had to ask people to hire a marquee in the grounds for the dancing which added to the expense for them.”
What was a big problem has turned out to be something of a gift as it has led to a brave and radical solution that looks set to be a sensational success while creating a new income stream for the house.
What were the property’s vast kitchens and ancillary rooms in the basement of the property have been transformed into ‘The Old Kitchens’, a perfect place for wedding guests to enjoy the reception after the formalities are over, whilst also facilitating everything from meetings, parties and events to small private gigs and filming.
In the 19th century, the below stairs area boasted Victorian kitchens, pantries, store rooms, larders, ice houses, a room for the head cook, servants’ halls and workshops but these were abandoned after the Second World War when servants were in short supply.
Giving the basement a new life has taken over two years but it now has a private bar, a sprung dance floor where the main kitchen used to be and a series of other fabulous rooms.
Lady Cara, who led the renovation project with husband James, says: “It’s reminiscent of the 1920s and the prohibition era and we used as many of the original features as possible.”
They include a steam oven from the 1870s, cooking implements, plate racks and sinks. In the main house, there is original wallpaper by William Morris and this theme has been continued downstairs with architect Ben Pentreath reinvigorating some of Morris’s original designs for the new space.
Certainly, Nesbit Willoughby (1777-1849) would approve. His is one of the many family portraits in the main house and he sits above the fireplace with his eye patch and devil-may-care expression.
One of the most reckless characters in British naval history, he lost an eye, part of his jaw, and an arm and a leg. He was also court-martialed four times and knighted twice for his bravery, hence his nickname “twice knightly”. He also helped inspire the Hornblower novels.
The Old Kitchens has added another great dimension to Birdsall House though it means more work for the Willoughbys. Running the estate and using their home for weddings and events, along with the Yorkshire Mountain Bike Marathon, is a full-time job.
It is weddings and events season April to October and game season with guests until the end of January, which means the family only gets the house to themselves in February and March and even then they are busy planning.
So may there be more wonderful surprises for Birdsall House?
“I think the Old Kitchens project will be our big contribution,” says Cara, who adds that it has also provided her and James with brownie points from their teenage children as the space is undeniably cool, though interestingly the atmosphere in the historic property has not changed at all since The Old Kitchens were opened with plenty of drink, dancing and making merry below stairs.
The venue has since hosted a ‘Strictly’ style dance troupe, a Spanish saxophonist and a wedding featuring a seven-foot drag queen hired by a bride. In response, Birdsall House seems to be saying: “Come on in, enjoy yourselves down there and don’t worry about the noise. We can’t hear you.”