Description

BATHWICK HILL
(South side)

Claverton Lodge
05/08/75
II

Large detached house, now in multiple occupation. c1820, with extensive modification c1896 by JM Brydon.
MATERIALS: Ashlar, slate roof.
PLAN: The house is set to a terrace well below the adjacent pavement level, with entrance from the road at a raised half level. Overall form is a long, deep block with high hipped roof, returned at the ends towards the street with broad but shallow wings. The recessed centre has a deep projecting porch of c1896, encroaching on the pavement, with single storey screen walls each side.
EXTERIOR: The main, garden front, is in two storeys with attic, in nine bays, all with twelve pane sashes (the former list refers to glazing bars to bays six and seven only) in plain reveals and to stone sills, with a slight break forward between bays two/three and four/five. Bays six and seven are contained in a full height bow, crowned by an open balcony to a painted entablature with dentil cornice on two slender Doric columns, carrying a conical slated roof to a lead finial with weather vane; the rear of the balcony is enclosed by a full height C20 glazed screen in the plane of the main wall. To the immediate right of the bow is an inserted glazed door with transom light. In c1896 the top floor and roof with pedimented dormers were added, two of these with tripartite four:twelve:four pane sash, and one with twelve pane, all with slated cheeks, as throughout the design. The front is very austere, with a small plinth, cornice and deep blocking, the latter carried round the bow as the balustrade, capped with a small iron railing, and with a parapet, continued round the whole building with a neat concealed lead gutter. There are large ashlar stacks with cappings and blocking, to the left, at the ridge between bays two and three, and to the right of the bow, forward of the ridge. The right return has a central eaves stack dividing a pedimented dormer with a twelve pane sash each side, above two large tripartite four:twelve:four pane sashes, and at ground floor a blind light and a modified tripartite with central glazed door. At the other end, with an entrance courtyard, there is a central tripartite dormer above two twelve pane at each level; to the left is an inserted glazed door, and to the right, in the re-entrant to a small projecting section, is a late C20 lean-to porch with panelled door. The projecting section has a small square external stack. The left wing to the road frontage has a tall eaves stack abutting a half-dormer with twelve pane sash, above a blind light and a twelve pane, with a small light low right. The three bay recessed centre has nine pane, three:nine:three pane and paired nine pane dormers above two Diocletian lights, and two twelve pane sashes, partly concealed, and the right wing has a central eaves stack above blind lights, with one small light set low left. The deep central porch has a moulded segmental pediment above a full entablature with triglyphs above paired pilasters to an opening with low iron gates; the inner-paired door is three panelled. To the left is a tripartite sash with flush stone mullions, and the right side is plain, all to an entablature, with balustraded blocking. There are original downpipes, and some hopperheads carry the date 1896.
INTERIOR: Not inspected.
HISTORY: This late Georgian villa was comprehensively altered by the noted late Victorian architect J.M. Brydon, who was then engaged on the rebuilding of Bath¿s municipal buildings. The result was a fusion between a late Georgian villa, and a large hip-roofed house of `Wrennaisance¿ inspiration, with a picturesquely conceived garden front which made the most of the house¿s spectacular hillside setting. The house was occupied by the Rev Francis Kilvert (1793-1863) from 1837 to his death. It later became the home of Lady Cynthia Asquith, the early C20 writer and diarist, who is buried in Smallcombe Cemetery below with her husband Herbert.

Listing NGR: ST7641464441

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673345

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)