Description

KIDDINGTON WITH ASTERLEIGH KIDDINGTON
SP4122
10/65 Kiddington Hall and adjoining
orangery

GV II

Country house. Circa 1850, by Charles Barry, incorporating a core of 1673.
Squared and coursed limestone with ashlar dressings. Hipped slate roof. Square
plan with adjoining service range to north and adjoining orangery to north-west.
Remodelled in an Italianate style. Two storeys and attic. Chamfered plinth,
first-floor cill string, quoin strips at angles, deep bracketed eaves and
balustraded parapet (horizontally-symmetrical turned balusters) with panelled
square dies and large urn finials. Ashlar stacks with bracketed cornices (some
removed at time of survey - April 1987). East entrance front: 1:3:1 bays, with
recessed centre; plate-glass sashes with moulded architraves, and bracketed
cills to first floor. Central 3-bay stone porch with plinth, impost band, paired
three-quarter Tuscan columns on pedestals and supporting sections of architrave,
continuous frieze and cornice and balustraded parapet (drop balusters) with
paired dies above columns and finials. Round-arched plate-glass windows with
moulded architraves and raised keystones. Central pair of half-glazed doors with
fanlight, moulded architrave and stone walls with vermiculated rustication and
lions, South (garden) front: plate-glass sashes (tripartite in end bays) with
moulded architraves, pulvinated friezes with moulded cornices to ground floor
and bracketed cills to first floor. Pairs of low double doors beneath central
sashes of end bays. Vest (garden) front: 1:6:1 bays, with recessed centre;
plate-glass sashes with moulded architraves, pulvinated friezes with moulded
cornices to ground floor and bracketed cills to first floor. Service range to
north; 2 storeys: Cill bands and 2 ashlar ridge stacks. Five bays; glazing bar
sashes with plain architraves. Orangery to north-west: c.1850, by Barry in an
Italianate style. Ashlar. 1:8:1 bays; round-arched arcade consisting of square
piers, pilasters with pedestals and carved foliate capitals, moulded architraves
and carved spandrels depicting flowers and small animals; imposts, moulded
architraves, raised keystones and flanking Tuscan pilasters; continuous
entablature with dentil cornice and balustraded parapet with square dies and urn
finials. Three-bay arcaded returns, that to left with walled arch to right and
blind arches left and that to right with balustraded arch to left, central blind
arch and window to right with margin lights. Interior of orangery: formerly with
cast-iron roof construction (see rebates in front piers), now replaced by late
C20 sloping roof. Arched recess in left-hand end. End bays arcaded on each sides
(blind arch to rear of left-hand bay) with margin-light glazing in inner arches,
tiled floors and moulded plaster cornices to flat ceilings. Two-bay link black
to house; round-arched margin-light windows, moulded imposts, moulded
architraves and raised keystones, Tuscan pilasters entablature and blocking
course. Small vestibule between orangery and link block with apse to rear and
moulded cornice; pair of glazed doors and steps down to interior of link with
glazed-tile floor, pilasters, niches in rear wall and pair of 3-panelled doors
into house with cornice and semi-circular tympanum. Interior of house: principal
staircase hall with polection-moulded fireplace, and C18-style 3-flight
staircase with closed string, turned balusters and square newel posts. Drawing
room in a Rococo style with painted scrolls etc. on canvas, enriched cornice and
ceiling medallion. Dining room with carved marble fireplace and ceiling with
shallow plaster enrichment. Small drawing room in a Rococo style, with
doorcases, fireplace with lugged architrave and ceiling with shallow plaster
enrichment. Library with neo-Classical friezes and marble fireplace. Billiard
room with dado panelling and fireplace. Although not much is visible it appears
that the house does incorporate a C17 core, probably in the entrance range (see
masonry in front wall and irregular roof line). The Hall stands in a small
landscaped park, laid out by Capability Brown c.1740 or possibly in the 1760s
and incorporating a serpentine lake formed by the damming of the River Glyme.
Brown worked here c.1740 before being employed as gardener at Stowe. Formal
gardens and terraces (q.v.) and the dovecote (q.v.), the church of Saint
Nicholas (q.v.) and other park structures.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp669-70; Dorothy Stroud: Capability Brown
(London), pp47-8; Kiddington park and gardens are included in H.B.M.C.E.
Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade II)

Listing NGR: SP4117122841

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Kiddington Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15238386

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)