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Daneway lies half a mile or so to the west of Sapperton village, in the wooded valley of the River Frome.  It owes its name to the passage of the Danes down the valley in the year 894, racing to rescue their ships which had been detained by King Alfred.  The earliest part is the long rectangular Hall block, which almost certainly goes back to the late thirteenth century; an oratory (replaced in the seventeenth century by a library) was added on to it in 1339, its trefoil-arched entrance being still in situ, while two of its windows have been reset into the walls of the buttery wing at the back of the house.  Then, in Elizabethan times, the Hall was subdivided, vertically to form what are now the kitchen, Dining Room and part of the passageway through the house, and also horizontally; the roof timbers in the upper room - still show traces of the smoke from the central hearth.

In 1620 or thereabouts, the house was much enlarged by the addition of a tall gabled wing of no fewer than five stories, with a single room on each and a spiral staircase. Two of these rooms have charming Jacobean plaster ceiling, and one has a small internal wooden porch. The topmost room is lit by a window in each of the gables.

The house, one of the oldest manor houses in Gloucestershire, radiates a marvellous atmosphere of timelessness and peace.

Daneway was recently extensively restored by Nick & Kai Spencer.

The project in hand is a triptych showing the house and gardens at Daneway.  The central panel depicts an interior view of a window within the house, the seat of which is occupied by the owners and their dogs.  The two, folding side panels show views of the yew-walk, the kitchen garden, the courtyard and the house as seen from the hills nearby.

 

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