Clifton Hall Great House’s history has been well documented in various publications such as ‘Historic Houses of Barbados’ by Sir Henry Fraser and the late Ronnie Hughes, Country Life magazine in the USA, MACO Caribbean, Living Barbados and The Spectator additionally several televised documentaries. It is extremely unfortunate that, until purchased by the present owners, the house had been allowed to slip into disrepair.

 

The house required a complete restoration in order to preserve this historic site so that locals and tourists can now enjoy the history and splendour of this beautiful old plantation house.

 

In 2009, Massimo Franchi decided to take on this ambitious restoration task. Massimo is an International lawyer and Football Agent. Massimo, whilst born in Scotland, has dual nationality as his parents were Italian. Massimo had a passion to restore Clifton Hall Great House to its former glory.

 

This Great House consists of a generously proportioned two storey front section, with a magnificent arcaded verandah on three sides and a double staircase to a central pedimented porch. The entire house is over 13,500 square feet. The main house and its surrounding buildings required extensive work to the roof, windows, doors as well as eradicating the termites that were within the entire house from substructure to roof.

 

All rooms, including the 6 bedrooms, had to be completely renovated with en-suite bathrooms installed in most of the bedrooms. Thereafter the cottage and other attached outbuildings were sympathetically restored creating two further bedrooms. The Italian marble on the verandah is said to have come from Massa Carrara in Tuscany, Italy close to Massimo’s family roots. There are three chimneys and two fire ovens which were revealed during the restoration project. These have now been renovated creating wonderful and unusual features.