Description

CORSHAM CORSHAM COURT
ST 8770
5/104 The Bath House
(formerly listed as The Cold Bath at
20.12.60 Corsham Court )
GV I

Bath House, c1761-3 by Lancelot Brown, altered 1797 and 1802 by J.
Nash. Rubble stone with ashlar dressings, ogee stone-tiled roof
and crocketted finial. Square plan, 2 storeys, Gothick style.
Ashlar quoins, moulded cornice broken for ogee 'pediment' with
crocketted finials to apex and sides, similar finials to each
angle. Battlements between finials, probably an addition by Nash.
First floor on three principal sides has similar 2-light pointed
Gothic window with cusping and traceried glazing bars. Front
window is flanked by two canopied niches. Ground floor front and
bath chamber remodelled by Nash. Triple-arched front with 4-
centred centre arch and round-arched narrower side openings,
moulded with delicate pendant cusping. Quatrefoil columns and
responds with moulded caps and bases. Fluting to spandrels.
Similar half-columns within, 3 x 3 bays with broad centre and
narrower side bays each side, carrying shallow plastered
octopartite vault. Sunken bath with moulded stone rim. Front
loggia is open to sides with one ogee-headed archway each side with
hoodmould, the remnant of Brown's ground floor, stonework from the
removed front arcade now incorporated in Sham Ruin (q.v.). Two
side arches to rear of bath are open, one giving access to curving
stair to upper changing room, the other to a serpentine passage
leading back to the walled garden behind. Passage has 4 slit
windows with stained glass, plastered walls and tunnel vault
originally entirely inlaid with fir-cones and moss in patterns,
some of which survives. Rear stair tower is curved with curved
stone-tiled roof. Passage also has stone tiled roof.
(F.J. Ladd, Architects at Corsham Court, 1978 66-8, 108).

Listing NGR: ST8739470859

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Bath House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26268189

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)