Description

SU 94 NE ARTINGTON C.P. LITTLETON LANE

3/41 Loseley House
18.2.58

GV I

Country house. Built in 1562 to 1569 by Sir William More, possibly around an
older core, west wing added in c.1600, possibly to a design by John Thorpe.
Altered, c.1689, west wing demolished in 1835 and nursery wing added to south
east in 1877. Sandstone with malmstone and clunch dressings, the sandstone
originally brought from Waverley Abbey, and slate roofs. The original intention
was to build a half-H shaped plan house with courtyard and open end to north
closed by a wall and gatehouse. Only south and west wings were built. Main
house is now the former south wing. Mainly two storeys with attics to ends,
single storey nursery wing with attics.
Entrance Front: (to north). Asymmetrical with moulded plinth and angle quoining
to bays. Multiple brick stack to left, ridge and rear ridge stacks to left and
right of centre and square corbelled stack to right end. Four projecting
square gabled bays and three recessed bays with gabled dormers over. Stone
dressed, mullioned, leaded casement fenestration with arched lights, some
under simple hood mouldings. Gabled bay to left: one attic window, one large
12-light first floor window and two ground floor windows. Bay to right: one
ground and one first floor window, gabled dormer above. Tall entrance bay to
right again with one window on first and second floors, three first floor
windows to right in the first bay of a three bay hall range. Large square bay
to right with three tiers of six lights rising through the ground and first
floors to light the hall, attic window above. Two further bays to right - one
window to each floor of each bay. Entrance to left of centre - C17 doorway with
fluted Doric pilasters, triglyph frieze, broken scroll pediment with cartouche,
semi-circular fanlight and double doors of eight moulded panels.
South Front: Irregular, with a projection to west end and two large and one
small gable. Two windows below, five gabled dormers and eight windows to
remainder. Small round headed vermiculated doorway on ground floor with iron
studded door. C19 loggia to east.
Nursery Wing: Four gabled dormers, brick below on ground floor, stone above.
Interior: Main entrance with block rusticated, arched surround, leads to screens
passage of great hall to right. Passage has Jacobean panelling, fluted pilasters
and arched door surrounds.
Great Hall: Minstrels gallery to west end with balustrade on guilloche moulded
brackets and fluted Ionic columns attached to panelled and glazed screen.
High relief foliage and fruit carving attributed to Grinling Gibbons (an early
work). C19 ceiling with plasterwork panels. Trompe l'oeil inlay panelling to
west end taken from Nonsuch Palace showing perspective view of passages in
arched panels ¼" deep. Painted panels on south walls with H and K (Katherine
Parr) intertwined. Italian style "grottesche" panels over the gallery, also
brought from Nonsuch (from the banqueting hall). White stone "Kentian" fireplace
with Ionic columns and Elizabethan overmantle.
Library: Panelled ceiling, C19, in Jacobean style. Four centred, rusticated,
arched opening to fireplace with Elizabethan overmantle dated 1570, thought to
be made up from one of Queen Elizabeth's travelling cases.
Drawing Room: Late C16 with panelled ceiling and frieze of moorhens and
Cockatrices. Large clunch fireplace. Two storeyed with coupled columns below
on plinth decorated with classical swags. Coupled caryatids above. The
fireplace surround rusticated with some vermiculation, strapwork and panelling
above. Late C17 staircase with twisted balusters. Upper rooms have some C17
panelling, moorhen and Cockatrice friezes and fireplaces.
Queen Elizabeth I visited the house in 1577, 1583 and 1591, James I in 1603
and 1606, and Charles I, when Prince of Wales, in 1617.
PEVSNER: Buildings of England, Surrey (1971) pp 353-356
COUNTRY LIFE: Articles on Loseley House by Marcus Binney 2.10.69 and 9.10.69 Vol.CXLVI
Articles on Loseley House by C. Hussey Vol. LXXVII p 544 (1935).

Listing NGR: SU9749547149

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Loseley Park at Wikipedia
• Loseley Park official website
• Wikidata Q1708936

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

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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings