In the 1960s the Martin family who lived at The Manor in Grafton Regis purchased a bed from a Northamptonshire Auction House. They reassembled the bed and used it. When they left Grafton  and went to Wales the bed went with them.

 

In the 1980s it was traced to them by Clive Wainwright of the V&A who had been searching for this bed - it had disappeared from the protection of the House of Commons during WW2. The bed was made in 1859 of walnut and gilt inlay.

 

It had been a tradition in the past that the Coronation bed was in the Houses of Parliament for the King / Queen to sleep in the night before their coronation. Though this particular bed was never used for this purpose it had been made to replace previous beds which had upheld this tradition.

 

The Martin family eventually sold the bed back to Parliament. It was restored to its former glory and is now displayed in the Speaker's House.

 

What a strange story that Grafton Regis, the site of a former Royal residence, had housed this Royal bed under the protection of the Martin family, unknown to almost everyone...