Plaster Ceiling, Audley End House and Gardens

A view of the ceiling in the Saloon. The saloon would have been the main reception room in the Jacobean period. The ceiling is the original Jacobean design. It has been extensively repaired as there are records of Joseph Rose taking moulds of the ceiling from the 1760s onwards. The ceiling is decorated with 32 panels are a nod to the builder, the 1st Earl of Suffolk. He was a naval man (1603-1605) and Thomas Audley's grandson, he was the man who found the letter plotting to blow up parliament. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for his efforts in the Spanish Armada. The room was untouched in 1825, but the furnishings are all nineteenth century.