Description

STANNINGTON BLAGDON
NZ 2177
13/59 Blagdon Hall
27.8.52
GV I
Country House. 1730-1752 for Sir Matthew White, incorporating a little of an
earlier house; east front built first, a second phase of work including the
south front and the addition of the 2nd floor completed by 1752 (south front
rainwater heads, these by James Paine). Alterations 1778-1791 by James Wyatt
for Sir Matthew White Ridley; north wing c.1820 partly by John Dobson. Other
C19 parts removed, following 1944 fire, in 1948-1949 restoration by Robert
Lutyens. Tooled ashlar; Lakeland slate roof.

Entrance (east) front: 3 storeys, 7 bays, grouped 2,3,2. Narrow proportions.
Renewed sash windows with glazing bars in architraves, those on 1st floor with
swell friezes and cornices, the centre pedimented. Plinth, 1st floor band,
ground and 1st floor sill bands. Projecting 2nd-floor sills. Top moulded
cornice and coped parapet. Traces of giant pilasters and 2nd floor cornice
removed in 1782. Low-pitched hipped roof with 2 compound transverse stacks
with modillion cornices, and another at right end. Large rainwater heads with
monograms dated 1945. Central door in pedimented Corinthian doorcase a 1948/9
insertion. Set back to right, plainer 6-bay north wing with small-paned sashes.

South front similar but of wider proportions, with some elongated ground floor
windows; friezes and cornices on ground floor. All 1st floor windows pedimented,
with coat of arms and garlands. Set back to left 1-storey, 3-bay extension of
c.1820.

Interior: ground-floor rooms largely late C18. Entrance hall: plaster cornice,
doors with Greek Key pattern in reveals, with frieze and cornice over each.
Wyatt Room: good plasterwork, screen with fluted columns and fireplace with
chimneypiece panel. Drawing Room (former Saloon): deep moulded and modillioned
cornice, mahogany doors with carved panels, elaborate overdoors with oak-leaf
friezes; window shutters with egg-and-dart. Dining Room: carved marble fireplace,
classical ornament and frieze with urns and palmette over doors. Library of
1928 by Robert Lutyens, with earlier carved chimneypiece. Stairhall mid-C18:
Roman Doric screen at foot and Ionic screen at head of open-string Imperial
stair with stick balusters and ramped moulded handrail; plasterwork includes
deep modillion cornice, Rococo swag and ceiling rose, perhaps by the Italian
stuccatori who worked at Wallington. One mid-C18 panelled bedroom with bolection-
moulded fireplace (with ornate ironwork) and door architraves; enriched cornice,
fielded panelling. North (nursery) wing with early C19 doorcases and cornices.
Cellars with brick barrel vaults; one part, not seen, has C17 fireplace and
walling from earlier house.

Country Life CXII 188, 260 - and 396 et seq.

Listing NGR: NZ2156777043

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Blagdon Hall at Wikipedia
• Blagdon Hall official website
• Wikidata Q4923847

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)