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    The bedrooms

    The Blue Bedroom
    Near the fireplace a glass panel shows a cavity in the chimney stack with a small round window. This is thought to have been one of several spy holes and hideaways for priests in the house. The bed incorporates much earlier carving, notably a fine 17th-century Flemish representation of the Last Supper on the footboard. The 18th century oak cupboard is French. The tapestries were woven at Mortlake c. 1700 and feature Diogenes the Philosopher, one with Alexander the Great and the other with Plato.

    The Oak Bedroom
    This was the principal bedroom of the Norris family, which saw some restoration in the 19th century when Leyland added the fireplace, and is furnished as it was in Miss Watt's time. The bed is decorated with numerous pieces of continental carving, and the early 18th century German wall cupboard is decorated with the carving of Jacob wrestling with the Angel. On either side of the bed are reproductions of Van Dyck's portraits of Charles I and his Queen, placed here in recognition of an unsubstantiated tradition that the King slept here in 1630.

    The Green Bedroom
    This fully panelled room conceals a cavity for recusant priests, reached by a ladder in the cupboard on the left. The tight passage between the panelling and the chimneybreast leads to a space situated above the right hand closet, which also has access to the roof space above. Once again the furnishings are largely of Victorian oak, with the bed incorporating earlier carvings.

    The Tapestry Bedroom
    In the 17th century, this was referred to as the ‘Chamber over the Gates' and was just one of nineteen bedrooms listed in the house in 1624. The stone fireplace surround is one of the few original ones surviving in the house, surmounted by simple plaster pargetting thought to date from the early 17th century. Tapestries have been hung in the room since at least the mid 19th century.

    The bed is largely 17th century, with a headboard depicting an obscure Catalan saint, St Raymund, flanked by SS Nicholas of Bari and Margaret of Antioch. The oak cradle is Victorian, despite the carved date.

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    The Oak Bedroom at Speke Hall
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