Merchant's House supporters Micola Nevile and David Sherratt raised enough money to pay for new red curtains around a refurbished 17th century bed.

And last month they tried it out, chaperoned by Margaret Matthews, who made the curtains and the colourful bed cover.

The bed is in the kitchen chamber (a bedroom over the kitchen), which is having its 350-year-old striped wall paintings restored. It is, like other 17th century beds, shorter than beds today, as people at that time slept more upright, propped up on pillows.

It is thought to have aided their digestion.

David Sherratt donated his fee for giving a lecture to the Marlborough History Society, which also added a further donation.

Micola Nevile, who until recently owned a fashion shop in Kingsbury Street, donated the proceeds of a champagne reception that she had organised at the Merchant’s House.

Fashion artist, Carole Waller, whose painted silks are well-known on London catwalks, had been the speaker.

The completed chamber and bed can be seen when The Merchant’s House re-opens again for visitors on 1 April .