Yorkshire Roses

Years after removing them for restoration, today we re-applied the Yorkshire Rose mouldings to the walls of our living room. We live in a late Victorian (circa 1895) terraced townhouse and believe that these roses, like similar mouldings on the ceiling, were an original feature. They occupy the stepped corners of decorative panels that break up the wall expanses of the high-ceilinged room. They are both beautiful and intriguing!

When we moved here the roses were thick with many layers of paint, the most recent being just one colour, a very 1980s beige. We removed the roses from the walls in order to strip the paint from them so that the sharper details of the moulding would be more evident after repainting. Before we removed them we had assumed that they were plaster, but found that they are in fact a rubbery material, very much like that used for Lincrusta panelling.

The paint proved difficult to strip, and with 42 roses to work through we were overwhelmed by that difficulty. We therefore decorated the lounge without re-applying the roses, thinking we would slowly get through that task over the following months. Instead many years passed. I raised my children, I started a business, we renovated every other room in the house, laid replacement floors and tiles, moved walls, fitted bathrooms, made curtains and blinds, installed antique fireplaces…

Then a few weeks ago Dave decided to replace the living room floor so that we could install new underfloor heating. By now the walls badly needed repainting and the roses had been waiting in the cellar for at least 15 years! So my dear love retrieved them and to my delight finished stripping them before painstakingly painting them anew, this time with yellow centres, white petals, and green leaves. They look very like my business logo!

Next weekend the new floor will be laid. Then I will sit in my lovely living room feeling almost aristocratic. I wish my humble ancestors could see that and be gladdened by it. Maybe they will?