Burton Constable Hall

Burton Constable, Hull, Yorkshire HU11 4LN

Tel: 01964 562400

website: www.burtonconstable.com

Burton Constable is a large Elizabethan mansion set in a 300 acre park with nearly 30 rooms open to the public. The interiors of faded splendour are filled with fine furniture, paintings and sculpture, a library of 5,000 books and a remarkable 18^th century 'cabinet of curiosities' which contains fossils, natural history specimens and the most important collections of scientific instruments to be found in any country house. Occupied by the Constable family for over 400 years, the house still maintains the atmosphere of a home. The superb 18^th and 19^th century interiors include a Gallery, Dining and Drawing Rooms, Bedrooms, Chapel and Chinese Room. A total of 30 rooms are open to view and these include some fascinating 'below stairs' areas such as an intriguing Lamp Room.

As part of the exhibition project on Work & Play: Life on The Yorkshire Country House Estate, the skeleton of a sixty-foot long sperm whale has been put on display in the Great Hall at Burton Constable. The Burton Constable Whale was stranded on the Holderness coast in 1825, and the skeleton was brought to the park at Burton Constable where it was put on public display. The Burton Constable Whale was a source of inspiration for the American novelist Hermann Melville and appears in his famous novel: Moby Dick.

Outside the house there are gardens with statues, a delightful orangery ornamented with coade stone, a stable block and wild fowl lakes set in 300 acres of parkland landscaped by 'Capability' Brown in the 1770's.