Description

WESTONBIRT WITH A433
ST 88 NE
LASBOROUGH (off south side)
10/177 Westonbirt House
with south terrace
3.11.71
GV I

Large country house, a school since 1928. 1863-1870 by Lewis
Vulliamy for Robert Stayner Holford. Built in the style of
Elizabethan prodigy houses, with Renaissance classical ornament.
Yellow-brown ashlar from Box, slate roofs, scattered stone stacks,
grouped and single polygonal flues and with urns, finials and
obelisks used as skyline ornament. Rectangular main block, mostly
of 2 tall storeys and attic in series of large dormers, but with 3-
storey corner towers and centre 5-storey tower dated 1868 to north,
lower wing to east dated 1866 merging into 2-storey service
courtyard dated 1865, and single-storey large orangery to west
dated 1872. Highly decorative use of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian
orders inset with stone mullion and transom fenestration with
sculpted cornices and aprons, and elaborately carved friezes to
each order. Attic storey skylights use Corinthian order and
French motifs such as shell pediments, and are set between pierced
strapwork balustrade. Central north tower has ogee fish-scale
dome and is recessed twice from end lower towers with sculpted
heads in roundels on inside returns. Large round arched, columned
porte-cochere in centre with small colonnade linking to main walls
on each side. South side of 5 bays has central half-round oriel
on first floor. Orangery, now a theatre, has tall radial glazed
round-headed arches between attached columns on south side, 3 large
3-light stone mullion and transoms to north side, stone balustrade
with spiked ball finials, and projecting north west pavilion with
open arcaded upper storey and ogee fishscale dome.
Interior: the main rooms are arranged around the central top-lit
saloon and are in remarkably good condition. The decoration is
of extremely high quality and many of the original silk and leather
wall coverings survive, in addition to the painted decoration of
the main bedrooms along the south front. The ground floor rooms
all have elaborate plaster ceilings. Some of the original
fittings survive, notably in the library, and most fireplaces.
The joinery is also of very high quality, mostly oak and walnut.
The house is probably Vulliamy's most important surviving domestic
building and is characterized both internally and externally by
very fine craftsmanship which has remained virtually unaltered
during its years as a school. On the south side, the house is set
on a terrace with a low moulded stone wall edged by 14 large
gadrooned ornamental urns, with steps down in the centre and to
each end. In the area set back from the main block to the south
east is a small bronze sundial supported by putti.
(James Lees-Milne, Country Life, Vol 151, 1972; Victoria County
History, Gloucestershire Vol XI, 1976; Margaret V. Mason,
Westonbirt: History of a house, 1978; Mark Girouard, The
Victorian Country House, 1971; David Verey, Buildings of England -
Gloucestershire: the Cotswolds, 1979)

Listing NGR: ST8641489625

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Westonbirt House at Wikipedia
• Westonbirt House official website
• Wikidata Q7989499

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: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)