The Politics of Wallpaper: two Cheshire houses in the late Regency period

Dunham Massey near Manchester and Oulton Park near Chester were both redecorated during the 1820s and 30s. Drawing on evidence in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the John Rylands Library and other sources, Rowena Beighton-Dykes will explore the uncertain political atmosphere on the brink of the Victorian era. Did politics influence the interior decoration of these houses? Did the owners make differing choices according to their situation? Illustrated with wallpaper schemes, politically motivated correspondence and publicity, this talk will show how wallpaper is more than just background material.

If only walls could talk.

Rowena Beighton-Dykes is Chair of the Liverpool Regional Group of the Victorian Society and a specialist in period wallpaper. She is the editor of the Review, the journal of the Wallpaper History Society.

Images:

Wallpaper order for Dunham Massey, 1831

Photo: Rowena Beighton-Dykes, from the Cowtan Order Books in the V&A

Dunham Massey

Photo: Mike Peel, Wikimedia Commons

Oulton Hall c1735

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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The Quaker Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool, United Kingdom

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