MOLA archaeologists have been carrying out a detailed recording of Canons Ashby House. This sixteenth century country house in rural Northamptonshire began as a modest farm house and was gradually enlarged and altered by successive members of the Dryden family resulting in the jumbled architecture seen today. As well as traditional drawn and photographic survey techniques the archaeologists have carried out a complete laser survey of the house and photogrammetric models have been produced of several features.
This painted scheme was discovered during restoration work in the 1980s and comprises decorative patterns and grisaille murals. The murals tell the story of Jeroboam from chapter 13 of the first Book of Kings. The adjacent panel retains a range of small graffiti including an 18th-century graffiti of a parson and a fashionable lady. The wall is an internal stud partition with a blocked doorway and fragmentary remains of floorboards which were made obsolete when the floor was dropped to its current level.
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