Despite Clumber House being one of the most impressive buildings in the country during its heyday (the late 18th and 19th centuries), the National Trust held very little in the way of material culture from the building as it is believed that that the house and gardens was stripped of all its masonry and fittings prior to its demolition.
The mansion site was the subject of an archaelogical dig in the 1970s and in 2016, but so many questions still remain. We answered some of these questions this summer in our publicly assessible digs. Here's a bit of background information.
How did we know where to dig?
The documentary evidence for the mansion is pretty good, and we knew from looking at historic photographs and maps exactly where the house previously stood.
Following 1970s archaeological excavations, the outline of the house was also picked out in stones.
The plan shown below shows the layout of the rooms on the ground floor of the house after the fire of 1879, which destroyed the central core of the house.