Braving the Basement – Ickworth, Suffolk

 Part of my new role as director for the East of England region at the National Trust is to get to know all of the places that we look after in this wonderful part of the country. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it…

And so to Ickworth, the first stop on my tour. I was here to meet Caroline, the general manager, and as many of her team as I could find on my first morning’s visit.

I was bowled over. I remember first visiting Ickworth around ten years ago, and have made several visits back since then, but in recent years the place has transformed beyond all recognition.

View of the Rotunda at Ickworth, in snow

The most noticeable feature now is the HLF-funded Ickworth Lives presentation in the basement. As Caroline explained to me, the innovation here is that new arrivals at the house are encouraged to visit the basement first, before they reach the grandeur of the rooms in the Rotunda. Unusually for country house properties, therefore, it’s more of a ‘downstairs upstairs’ experience than ‘upstairs downstairs’.

The sequencing helps to remind visitors that the Rotunda was, designed for entertaining on a grand scale and the basement was the engine room of the house – quite literally!. Some of Ickworth’s 400 or so volunteers add to the atmosphere by dressing in costume and showing visitors the sorts of jobs that were carried out in the basement.

 The presentation in the basement is made all the more poignant and affecting by the memories of people who used to work on the estate for the family, the Herveys. Three of them visited for the opening, their first visit back since leaving service some time before the Trust took on the site in the 1950s.

I loved the little details – the bicycles for getting along the endless corridors, the original copies of 1935 newspapers, the working speaking tubes connecting the basement to the rooms upstairs. The house had been modernised in the early 20^th century, including with electric lighting – some facsimiles of the original lightbulbs are in use, casting a very dim glow.

Caroline, General Manager, with Ickworth basement bike

 

Visitors are encouraged to make the transition from downstairs to the upstairs by observing some simple rules of etiquette. But the shift from the basement to the majestic entrance hall is quite stark, and Caroline is keen to look again at the whole experience of visiting the house and grounds. Very exciting plans are being prepared, which could see new parts of the estate developed and new visitor routes and tours.

 

 Much of the collection in the house was covered up for winter. It was certainly cold in the basement, and not much warmer higher up either. But the views from the upstairs windows were stunning.

David, premises manager, told me about the insulation work that had been carried out in the house, which has dramatically reduced the heat loss from the roof of the Rotunda. LED lightbulbs and a woodfuel boiler in the new visitor reception lodge are contributing to driving down fossil fuel consumption. It’s a good reminder of the need for us to think in smart ways about how we manage great estates like this – just as their original owners would have done.

Snowy park tree

David has also been behind a photography exhibition in the Court Room in the west wing. Some fantastic photos of Ickworth in the snow can be seen on our Facebook site too – they put my hasty smartphone snaps to shame.

My overall impression is that I loved what the team have done in terms of tone, story and experience. I can’t wait to see it in full flow once Spring returns. Ickworth has enjoyed generous funding for the basement project but it also struck me that ideas like this don’t take pots of money, just a way of thinking and desire to tell our stories in different and flexible ways.  It’s inspirational stuff, and a shining example of a great team working together.

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