Hidden treasures at Dyrham Park

The Dyrham Park episode explores a panoramic painting newly acquired by the National Trust and thought to be one of the earliest painted depictions of the port of Bridgetown, Barbados. The painting had belonged to William Blathwayt, the leading colonial official of the late 17^th century and owner of Dyrham Park. It left the house in the 1950s with the last Blathwayt owners of Dyrham Park and was acquired by the National Trust in 2022. 

The painting has been undergoing extensive work at National Trust’s Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio in Knole in Kent since March 2024 and came back to Dyrham Park in early June 2025. 

Research project and colonial history

Thought to be by an Anglo-Dutch or Anglo-Flemish artist and one of only three paintings of 17^th-century Barbados known to exist, ‘A View of the Port of Bridgetown, Barbados, with Extensive Shipping’ has also found itself at the centre of a research collaboration between historians from Yale Center for British Art, Barbados Museum and Historical Society and the National Trust. 

The collaboration has brought together experts from different disciplines across the globe. Expert historians specialising in Barbados, maps, military, maritime and art have all contributed to create a deeper understanding of what is being portrayed in this rare and significant painting. 

A Spanish ship sits alongside many English vessels, depicting what could be an event of significance, as ships fire salutes and trumpeters fanfare. It may show the 1690s when England and Spain were allied against the French during the Nine Years’ War (1688-97). Research to uncover more continues. 

Barbados was then the wealthiest English colony in the Caribbean, and a key port of call on transatlantic routes. Ships arrived with enslaved African people to work on the plantations and departed with sugar for sale in Europe. Wind-powered cane mills, warehouses, wharves, and ships are shown in the painting; enslaved Africans are absent from the scene. 

Conservation studio work

Almost 500 hours were spent on the painting at the conservation studio. The painting was cleaned to remove a yellowed varnish, along with a substantial amount of old restoration paint which obscured around 40-50% of the work. Tiny brushes were used in highly skilled precision work to inpaint damaged areas whilst leaving visible as much of the original as possible. A maritime historian was consulted to help accurately recreate the ships’ rigging.  The painting was also sent to the Courtauld Institute of Art for technical analysis and an X-ray to look at its composition.  

From Friday 6 June, the painting will be on show on an easel in Dyrham Park house’s Slop’t Parlour, allowing visitors to get close and see the fine details.   

The programme also features fine 17^th-century Flemish wall tapestries from the collection that were conserved at the National Trust Textile Conservation Studio in Norfolk followed by specialist wet cleaning in Belgium. Hanging in the house’s Tapestry Bedchamber, the tapestries are one of only two sets of their kind in the UK depicting the fountains and parterres of the famous gardens at Enghien near Brussels. 

Dry stone wall volunteers who play a vital role in the 270-acre South Gloucestershire site’s outdoor team, also feature in the hour-long episode.