History lessons at Stowe House

Bringing light into the interior of a historic stately home, the Rooflight Company once again proves its conservation credentials in the restoration of Stowe House.

Bringing light into the interior of a historic stately home recognised as one of a hundred endangered sites of significance worldwide, the Rooflight Company once again proves its conservation credentials in the restoration of Stowe House.

In alliance with the Stowe House Preservation plan, the Rooflight Company has helped in achieving the aims of renovating and conserving the external fabric of the building and upgrading the heritage aspect of parts of the structure currently degraded by modern development.

The company supplied twelve of their rooflights for the project, including 3 specially designed Lanterns, an Octagon and 7 'special' Conservation Rooflights.

They replaced the previous examples, which were made of wood and, in some cases, cast iron.

Additional apertures were created elsewhere on the roof, which consists of three separate areas - two winged roofs made from stone slate, an expanse of flat lead roof, and some pitched roofs also made of lead.

An almost complete record of the building accounts - the 'Stowe Papers' - enabled historically accurate repairs and details to be carried out, and products from the Rooflight Company were used because of their ability to provide an authentic aspect combined with the requisite level of quality and performance.

Specifically designed by architect and company chairman Peter King in order to meet the need for a product appropriate for use in historic applications, the Conservation Rooflight is a faithful reproduction of a traditional model^ conforming to the highest modern standards of insulation, weather tightness and safety, and is considered by architects, conservation officers and the National Trust to be the most suitable for use in the sympathetic restoration of older buildings.

With a history dating back to 1676, Stowe House is one of the earliest neo-classical palaces in existence, and was remodelled throughout the 18^th Century by eminent architects including Vanbrugh, Gibbs, Kent and Soane.

Since 1923, the building has been home to Stowe School, a co-educational, independent boarding school that counts Richard Branson among its former pupils.

The house and the majority of the garden monuments are classified as Grade I in the statutory List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Importance and, in recent times, the grounds have become a popular location for weddings, corporate functions and backdrops for magazines and movie sets.

The Stowe House Preservation Trust was established on 30 June 1997 with the object of restoring and preserving the estate for the benefit of the nation and the public.

English Heritage worked in close consultation with the Trust and, following four years of painstaking restoration, the building and its magnificent grounds are now open to the public.

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