Description

STOURTON WITH GASPER STOURHEAD PARK ST 73 SE (south side) 6/156 Stourhead House 6.1.66 GV I Country house. 1721-24 for Henry Hoare by Colen Campbell, library and picture gallery pavilions added 1796-1800 for Colt Hoare, east portico added 1840, 1902-06 rebuilding of central block by Doran Webb and Sir Aston Webb, following 1902 fire. Limestone ashlar, Lakeland slate hipped roofs, ashlar stacks. Central C18 range with added wings and pavilions, service court on north side. Two-storey over basements, 5-window. Tetrastyle portico added 1840, from Campbell's C18 design, Composite columns to modillioned cornice and pediment with lead statue, from the Temple of Apollo (q.v.), chamfered rusticated basement with 6-pane sashes, balustraded steps up to portico flanked by large urns on plinths. Principal floor has double half-glazed doors flanked by cross windows within portico, casement with pediment either side. First floor has 3 blind windows in moulded architraves with 2-light casement in eared and shouldered architrave either side, modillioned cornice to balustraded parapet with corner urns, attic block above pediment also with statues from Temple of Apollo. Flanking one-bay wings and 3-bay pavilions over rusticated basement, tall casements with cornices, small casements to attic, all front windows of library are blind, balustraded parapets with ball finials added c1904 by D, Webb. Right and left returns of main block of ten bays; principal floors have Venetian windows and cross windows, all in Gibbs surrounds, first floors have ten cross windows in moulded architraves, good lead rainwater heads dated 1722. Library south pavilion has French windows with lunette over to left return, 12- pane and 6-pane sashes to rear, picture gallery to north has blind windows to side and to rear, linking wings have 12-pane sashes. Rear of main block has recessed distyle in antis first floor portico with pediment and projecting 2-bay wings, all by D. Webb; wing casements in Gibbs surrounds to principal floor, central round-arched French windows to rusticated recessed entrance, balustraded steps over basement and balustrade to portico added by Sir Aston Webb. Service wing on west side of north court with 4- panelled door, casements and sashes, the first floor billiard room over added by D. Webb, diagonally-set outbuilding, possibly game larder on west side. Interior dates from after 1902 fire, rebuilt using photographs of pre-fire interior, plasterwork by Agostini of Bristol, staircase redesigned with two arms instead of one, fireplaces in Saloon and Italian Room brought from Wavendon 1912. Library of c1800 survived fire and retains Colt-Hoare's fittings; shallow-barrel vaulted ceiling, stained glass in west lunette by F. Eginton, painted lunette to east by S. Woodforde, fireplace from Wavendon, oval niches over doors with Rysbrack busts. Picture gallery also intact: white marble fireplace with classical frieze, modillioned ceiling cornice, woodwork and fine contemporary furnishings here and in library specially designed by Chippendale. Other fittings include mahogany doors c1905. Despite the 1902 fire, this house is important as a Palladian villa in England, set in landscaped parkland and with the fine Stourhead Gardens to the west. The London banking family of Hoares acquired the estate in 1714, the old Stourton House was demolished c1720 and Stourhead built slightly to the north west. Sir Henry Colt Arthur Hoare gave the greater part of the estate to the National Trust in 1946. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, 1975; J. Lees-Milne, Stourhead, 1964; Rebuilding Stourhead, 1902-06; National Trust Studies, 1979)

Listing NGR: ST7775434347

External Links

• Wikidata Q17529448

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Recommended Books

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)