Description

NEWINGTON A329
SU6096 (West side)
15/41 Newington House
18/07/63

GV II*

Country house. c.1635 for Walter Dunch, altered c.1680 for Henry Dunch and
re-modelled 1777 for George White. Coursed squared limestone rubble with ashlar
dressings; Welsh-slate roof with stone stacks. Double-pile plan. 3 storeys plus
basement. Symmetrical 7-window front, with rusticated quoins, moulded
first-floor storey band and cornice below the top storey, has a central doorway
with stone bolection doorcase, 8-panel double-leaf doors and a late C18
Corinthian porch. Windows have moulded stone architraves and 12-pane sashes
except basement windows which have a rectangular stone mullion. Garden front is
similar but has no porch and the door architrave is as the windows. Both front
and rear entrances retain evidence for demolished segmental pediments.
Double-span hipped roofs are concealed by plain parapets. To right of the main
range is a single-storey late C18 service wing with 2 large Diocletian windows
at the rear. Lead rainwater heads on the main range are inscribed "GW 1777".
Interior: original features include the basement, with stop-chamfered beams and
the remains of a very large fireplace with chamfered stone jambs, and at ground
floor a timber-framed partition, formerly the wall of a closet, which has studs
flush with the plaster and retains a painted skirting. A built-in doorcase
between stair hall and saloon may also be original. The 3 principal rooms to
rear and the stair hall all have good late C18 marble fireplaces and plaster
cornices; the panelled saloon has fluting and medallions on doorcases and
cornice, matching the porch decoration, and the hall has a deep triglyph frieze
and mutule cornice with a triangular pediment to the saloon doorcase. The
open-well stair has cantilevered oak treads and a ramped and wreathed handrail.
The roof dates from the addition of the second floor in 1777 but retains timbers
Iron the roof of c.1680, the tie beams of which survive insitu. It had a central
platform and replaced the similar original roof for which there is evidence of a
lower pitch. There is an elaborate system of drainage tunnels around the
basement. The spacing of the front windows, in overlapping triplets, and many
details of the plan bear a strong resemblance to Rubens' engravings of the
Pallavicini Palace in his "Palazzi di Genova", published 1622. Dunch was closely
related by marriage to the Pallavicini family.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.716; C. Maltin: Newington House, 1985).

Listing NGR: SU6086196460

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17549037

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2