Detective story at heart of priory's restoration

Dating back more 600 years, the North Yorkshire manor house was first saved from ruin in the 19th century by the steel magnate Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell.

The Victorian industrialist restored the crumbling monastic architecture and put his own imprint on the property by giving the country retreat, near Northallerton, an Arts and Crafts makeover.

Sir Isaac died in 1904 and while the house was lived in until the 1970s, recent years have not been so kind to the ancient property, which is now owned by English Heritage.

"Reinstating the rooms at Mount Grace is something we have wanted to do for years," said Martin Allfrey, head of collections at English Heritage. "Recently we were faced with the need to make structural repairs to this part of the priory, so it was the perfect opportunity. The problem was that so much of the original decor had been lost that we weren't quite sure where to start.

"Only the fireplace, tiling and windows had survived in the drawing room and getting the rest of the period detail right was more of detective job."

The breakthrough came when a bookcase in the drawing room was removed, revealing a large section of wallpaper designed by the Arts and Crafts doyen William Morris, whose work transformed homes up and down the country.

Samples were sent off to the William Morris archive for identification where experts confirmed it was a floral design, Double Bough, which had first been used in 1892. Digging out the original 22 Applewood printing blocks was when the painstaking work of restoring Sir Isaac's dream home to its former glory really began.

Each of the 12 rolls of wallpaper needed to cover the room took almost a week to print by hand and a specialist decorator had to be called in to hang the paper on specially stretched canvas.

English Heritage will not reveal how much each roll cost, but the 150,000 year-long project, which has also included the renovation of a second room and improvements to the entrance hall, has been funded entirely through donations.

"Slowly, but surely we pieced everything together," said Mark Douglas, English Heritage's curator of properties. "We had an inventory dating back to 1945 and using that, along with the architect's drawings from 1898 and photographs of Arts and Crafts rooms at the now demolished Rounton Hall, which was Sir Isaac's primary residence, we were able to source period furniture through dealers, auction house and private donations.

"There was a real hotbed of Arts and Crafts in this part of Yorkshire. It went against mass production and was in many ways a return to the old artisan ways.

"However, like with many elements of the Victorian period the contradiction was only the very rich could afford the back to basics approach. In fact, Morris himself apparently described Sir Isaac as a man "with too much money and too little taste", so it wasn't an entirely happy relationship.

"It has been a fascinating project for everyone involved and we hope the end result is a fitting tribute to Sir Isaac and his formidable granddaughter Gertrude, who was a frequent visitor to Mount Grace."

Gertrude was the first woman to graduate from Oxford University with a First and went onto not only redraw the map of the Middle East after the First World War, but also laid the foundations for the modern state of Iraq.

For those whose job it is to preserve Mount Grace for future generations, her life and times are just another colourful layer in the already rich history of the site.

"The original priory was founded 600 years ago by the hermit-like Carthusian order," said Mr Douglas. "Sir Isaac restored one of the monk's cells and that period is still the most historically important.

"However, the real joy of the place is the fact it has so many layers and being able to peel those back is fascinating."

While money is inevitably tight Mr Douglas is in doubt about the next project on his wish-list.

"I've got my eye on the grounds," he says. "What I've learnt through this restoration is not to accept everything we've been told as fact, but instead scratch the surface a little more. We think we have discovered an original garden from the 17th century and it's already made us question the original design of the grounds. Ultimately what we want to do is make the outside as impressive as the inside."