Creating a replica of Calverley Old Hall’s medieval wall paintings
In Summer 2025 the Landmark Trust commissioned Isabella Finley, a recent graduate of the MA Wall Painting Conservation course at the Courtauld Institute of Art, to create an accurate replica of a section of the medieval wall paintings at Calverley Old Hall. We hope the replica will help visitors better understand and appreciate the Painted Chamber's beautiful, but faded, artwork – and see how it might have looked in the mid 1500s, when the scheme was first painted by Tudor hands.
Watch our video interview with Isabella to hear about her process and experience creating the replica. Then read on to find out more about the replica, and how it has helped us to learn more about the original paintings and artists who created the scheme.
Recreating the paintings’ iconography and style
The wall paintings at Calverley Old Hall are in the grisaille style of artwork. Coming from the French word for ‘grey’ this style is created using grey or monochromatic colours to create the illusion of volume and three-dimensional form. This same colouring, alongside the dramatic red stripes, has been carefully reproduced in the replica and helps demonstrate the details in the wall paintings which have now, to some extent, been lost in the wall paintings themselves.
The original paintings are in the grotesque style, featuring fantastical creatures and human forms mixed with natural elements. The area selected to reproduce for the replica is on the north-east wall of the painted chamber and the design focuses on motifs repeated throughout the chamber, including:
- A pattern with fantastical beasts and a portrait roundel
- Red stripes featuring a geometric, floral pattern
- A thinner grisaille pattern with stacked vases and pairs of birds.
The making process: an authentic challenge
The month-long project was broken into three main phases: building the support, plastering, and painting.
Building the Support
To mimic the original wall's structure, a wooden frame was built with internal oak planks, similar to the original wall studwork. Wire mesh was added between the planks to help the plaster stick. The replica is a 0.75:1 scale of the chosen area.
Plastering
Material analysis of the original paintings helped determine the recipe. The replica's plaster was made using Plaster of Paris (gypsum hemihydrate), crushed brick, anhydrite gypsum, and dolomitic limestone. The natural pinkish colour comes from the iron in the crushed brick or gypsum source. The quick-setting nature of the plaster meant it had to be mixed and applied in small batches, a process that took four days to apply in layers and another four days to dry.
Painting
The original artwork used the secco technique, meaning the paint was applied to a dry rather than a wet plaster surface. The pigments used for the hand mixed paint were carbon black, gypsum white, and red ochre, all bound together with rabbit skin glue as the binding agent. The artist had to prepare the glue carefully and grind the pigments into it to make paint. Painting the replica was the longest phase, taking Isabella about two weeks.
A window into the past
Creating the replica provided insights into the likely methods of the 16th-century artisans. For instance, Isabella hypothesises that the original artists probably worked in a team to manage the quick-setting plaster and constant paint preparation. They also would have had much greater familiarity with the materials and likely planned their work around optimal weather, unlike Isabella in 2025, who faced unpredictable drying times.
See the replica at our Open Days
The replica will be on display at our Calverley Old Hall Open Days, alongside some samples of the materials used, to allow our Open Day visitors to visualise how the Painted Chamber would have looked when it was originally painted in the 16th century. The replica is a valuable educational tool, helping to highlight the incredible craftsmanship and historical value of the original paintings and demonstrating why their ongoing conservation and care is so important.
Find out when the next Calverley Old Hall Open Day is: Upcoming Open Day
If you’d like to find out more about Isabella’s process and experience creating the replica you can read her full, detailed project write-up here: Learn more
The replica of Calverley Old Hall’s Wall Paintings was made possible thanks to National Lottery Players.
