Description

SX 76 NE STAVERTON

2/85 Kingston House

11.11.52

GV II*

Country house. 1743 date on rainwater head. Built for John Rowe after a fire .
Coursed stone rubble with freestone dressings. Slate hipped roof of two spans and
with unusual slate- roofed capping over the parapet all round. Heavy moulded stone
cornice. Plain stone bands at floor level and moulded plinth. Rectangular on
plan. Three storeys and basement. East front 2:3:2 bays, centre projects. Sash
windows with thick glazing bars some restored and others still blocked. Flat
stone window arches and plain cills. Central pilastered stone doorway with Doric
entablature and fielded panel double doors approached from C20 wooden steps. West
front also 2:3:2 bays, sashes intact, all but centre one blocked on second floor.
Central glazed and panelled door, blind wooden false fanlight and stone brackets
to hood which is missing. South front bays complete range of sashes with thick
glazing bars, central doorway with early C19 panelled door and rectangular fanlight
with glazing bars. Good rainwater head with angel and date 1743. North front five
bays complete with sashes with thick glazing bars. Central doorway with moulded
brick arched hood and fielded panel door, now enclosed in C19 stone porch. Similar
rainwater head. Probably reused from an earlier house on the site a large round-
arched ovolo moulded sandstone doorway to cellars. Large red brick double chimney
stacks with arch linking the flues and with stone cornices. Interior: Drawing
room has bolection panelling, pilasters and niches flanking marble chimneypiece,
moulded cornice and moulded plaster ceiling depicting a dove holding a sprig within
a sunburst. Another small ground floor room has fielded panelling, bolection
chimneypiece and moulded plaster ceiling with high relief branches within an oval.
Hall partly panelled. Very fine inlaid wooden staircase with three balusters per
tread. Panelled landing with moulded cornice. Panelled first floor room with good
moulded plaster cornice. Small room off has C18 wall paintings depicting landscape
with birds and animals. Passage off has similar wall painting. First floor east
room has a small marble chimneypiece with moulded plaster overmantle depicting the
Flight from Egypt and a pediment with two large putti. Another small first floor
room has C17 panelling with circa C18 painted marbling or graining. Vaulted stone
cellars. The Rowes were a Catholic family and there was once a private chapel.

Listing NGR: SX7947165460

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17533411

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)