The Museum Rooms
In the sixteenth century a stairway led from the Great Hall to this space, although the precise layout of rooms at this time is unknown. A first-floor plan of 1775 shows that this area contained two bedrooms separated by a dressing room. In 1837 a proposal was put forward to convert these rooms into a manuscript library for Sir Clifford. However, this was not followed through, and by the 1850s an elaborate theatre had been created, with the outer room serving as an auditorium and the inner room as a stage and fly tower. The inventory of 1869 records that there were seven ‘fixed' and two ‘movable seats covered with crimson cloth 9 ft 10 ins long'. There was an ‘Orchestra filled with Music Stands covered with crimson cloth', a ‘stage filled with scenery' and the walls of the theatre were ‘covered with crimson and white glazed calico'. Although it is known that a museum existed in 1774, its location remains a mystery.
The present museum was referred to as the ‘White room adjoining Gallery' in the inventory of 1791 when it housed a number of framed drawings. The inventory of 1910 refers to these rooms as the ‘museum', although at this time the rooms were used simply for the storage of unused furniture. The Museum Rooms in their present form date from the 1970s, when William Constable's assorted collections of scientific material were recovered from attics where they had been stored since the early nineteenth century. The museum now displays part of the most substantial Cabinet of Curiosities to be found in any English country house.
In 2003, the Burton Constable Foundation purchased an 18 th century telescope which had, prior to its sale from the Hall around 1960, been for some two centuries a well–known feature of the house. The telescope was originally acquired by William Constable (1721– 91), who purchased it from the famous York clockmaker Henry Hindley (1701– 71) in 1760 for the, then, very large sum of 100 guineas (£105). The telescope, with its complex and finely–crafted equatorial mounting, became one of the “must see” features of Burton Constable Hall for visitors during the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The instrument's international significance lies in the fact that it is thought to be the world's first telescope to have been equatorially mounted.
Registered Charity No.1010121 Registered Museum No. 604
