Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire
This collection has 17,144 items online
Captain George and Mrs Elsie Bambridge bought Wimpole estate in 1938, with the Hall almost entirely empty of contents. Over the next 40 years the Bambridges slowly furnished and decorated the house, seeking out pieces that were either once at Wimpole, or had strong connections to the estate or previous owners. Highlights such as the 1780s state bed, and the exquisite gilded sofas made especially to fit the curved walls of Sir John Soane’s Yellow Drawing Room, show how a grand country house would have looked in its heyday. Alongside the more formal rooms sit the cosier more personal spaces that make the house a home and reflect the Bambridges’ personalities and tastes. Look out for the collection of 18th and 19th century conversation pieces that decorate the drawing rooms, delicate French porcelain figures, and collections of carriage prints. Among Wimpole’s few indigenous contents is the great library of the Earls of Hardwicke (owners of Wimpole from 1740 to 1894), which the Bambridges chose to buy with the estate. With over 6000 books (4000 pre-1810), Wimpole’s library is one of the National Trust’s largest and most varied, enhanced by Elsie Bambridge’s own collection that includes books that belonged to her father, the author Rudyard Kipling
