Mystery of home’s historic friezes
The owner of a home with a unique sitting room feature is appealing for more information about its history.
THE owner of a home with a unique sitting room feature is appealing for more information about its history.
John Radford and his family have spent nine years living at North Hall, in Barton, between Richmond and Darlington.
Much of that time has been spent painstakingly renovating the property, which along with four other homes, forms part of Barton Hall – the oldest part of which dates from the 1670s.
One of the most distinctive features of Mr Radford’s feature-packed four-bedroom home can be found in the sitting room, in the form of seven extremely rare tiled friezes depicting medieval hunting scenes.
The panels, which are made up of individually painted and fired tiles sized 9x3ins (approx 23x8cm), were made in 1913 by Carters of Poole, in Dorset. The firm latterly became the famed Poole Pottery business. The works are attributed to James Radley Young, and the largest friezes measure 15x3ft (38x8cm).
Mr Radford said: “I’ve spent some time looking into the background of the friezes, but there are still many unanswered questions about them.”
He knows nothing about who commissioned their creation, for example, or why, beyond the fact that the pottery had salesrooms in Manchester and Newcastle around the time they would have been ordered.
His search took him to an open day at auction house Bonhams in Leeds, where pictures of the friezes captured the attention of Antiques Roadshow’s expert Eric Knowles. He valued them at several thousand pounds.
Although the Radford family are on the move – the house is up for sale with Carver Residential part of the Carver Group – Mr Radford, a former businessman who now renovates houses for a living, says the fascinating tiles are going nowhere.
“Because they are bedded into a solid cement backing, the walls would have to be dismantled for the friezes to be removed,” he said. “It would be great to find out a bit more about them before we leave though.”
Gordon Carver of the Carver Group and director of Carver Residential, said: “These friezes are a very striking feature of what is a very interesting home. We’d be delighted to help Mr Radford find out a little more about their history.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Carver Residential’s Richmond office on 01748 825317, email richmond@nickcarver.co.uk or post a comment on this article.
