News from Ellys Manor House

A Hidden Gem

BBC's East Midlands Today realises this hidden gem within one of the countries most significant historic houses

Ellys Manor House (EMH) is without doubt, one of our most significant historic homes in the United Kingdom. EMH is not about bombast or bling, this is about integrity. The architectural language of the building perfectly encapsulates early modern European, British and Hanseatic League history, thus we are a testament to the Northern Renaissance. The house and the adjacent church tower were built by a member of the Ellys family, an English wool merchant of the Staple of Calais.

Understanding the allegorical language of the ellys manor house paintings

Part 2 Dissertation 2016
Robin Isabelle Moran
De Montfort University Leicester UK

Entry in The RIBA President's Medals Student Awards

This dissertation examines a little known collection of 15th century allegorical wall paintings in Ellys Manor, a small, privately owned and well preserved English wool-merchant’s house in Lincolnshire.

A painted fable

a fox

a hollow fox

framed with columns

trees     acanthus leaves

faded on dampened walls,

restored to new life

with passion and care -

a renaissance within

At Ellys Manor House, we would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has visited the house thus far (in the last seven years), and contributed to our wall paintings appeal. Due to your kindness we have managed to have a section of these important works conserved by Bianca Madden and Claudia Fiocchetti, two of our very finenest conservators in this field of work.

For anyone who does not know of Ellys Manor House and the important late medieval/renaissance domestic wall paintings in the upper rooms, I urge you strongly to visit.