Six centuries of Grade II*-listed history given new life, from guiding masterplan to design of joinery, with an architectural approach taken to re-ordering interiors. Working with English Heritage, the house has been given a newly-formed double-height entrance hall. Family life beyond is re-focussed around the Elizabethan central courtyard, reached through a new five-metre high sash window in the stair hall. The old north hall has become a book-lined games room, and a new kitchen is installed in a 1920’s panelled room with bespoke cabinets and two slabs of rare Italian marble frame, and a slot cut through the wall leads to a secret door in the dining room panelling. Upstairs the master bedroom has a generous new vaulted and marble-framed bathroom, and a backstair with a leather wrapped handrail leads between robust new arched openings under an oval skylight to tie the house together.