Sometimes the most interesting details are underneath your feet! Lieutenant-Colonel Thorneycroft was a wealthy industrialist who created many eccentric inventions for his home at Tettenhall Towers, now part of Tettenhall College.
He built a theatre in the Towers where he often welcomed his friends and family for concerts and dramatic performances. The sprung floor of the theatre (or the Music Room, as the Colonel called it) was built onto a mechanism which allowed the rigidity of the floor to be adjusted depending on the activity taking place or the size of the assembly.
Conservation architect David Mahony and heritage consultant Alex Dziegiel investigated beneath the floorboard and discovered the sprung floor mechanism almost intact. It would be fascinating to know how effective it was as a dance floor!
