6 April 1927 - 7 December 2011
John Chichester Constable, who has died aged 84, spent much of his later life overseeing the restoration of his ancestral home, Burton Constable, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Burton Constable is where you will find the skeleton of a sperm whale which was washed up on the beach at Tunstal in 1825. Herman Melville was aware of the skeleton and wrote about it in Moby Dick.
At a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale. Sir Clifford’s whale has been articulated throughout; so that like a great chest of drawers, you can open and shut him, in all his long cavities — spread out his ribs like a gigantic fan — and swing all day upon his lower jaw.
The full story is fascinating, and is described in detail in Philip Hoare’s excellent book Leviathan
About ten years ago John Constable approached us to restore his Debain harmonium. The Constable family were recusant Roman Catholics and the Debain was in a chapel some way from the house and built in penal times.
In the Hall itself we were shown a mechanical tree with a miniature pipe organ and singing birds, alas now long since silent, and also made by Debain.
- John Chichester-Constable with his Debain
Debain label