Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 30 January 2023 to correct the name and to reformat the text to current standards

SU 88 SW
8/150

MEDMENHAM
HENLEY ROAD (WITTINGTON)
Wittington

(formerly listed as Salvation Army Eventide Home)

24.11.76

GV
II*
Former mansion, in process of conversion to offices 1985. Dated by latin inscription on frieze as built in 1898 and enlarged in 1909. By Sir Reginald Blomfield for Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, Lord Devonport, founder of International Stores. Red brick, Ham stone dressings, moulded wooden eaves cornice with modillions, hipped roof of Westmorland slate. Brick chimneys with stone caps, and stone keyblocks and imposts to arched recessed panels. In William and Mary style.

Two storeys, attic and cellars. North front has eleven bays arranged in shallow E-plan with two bay flanking wings and slightly advanced three bay centrepiece. Chamfered stone quoins, flush plinth band, raised first floor band course. Three pane sash windows with gauged brick heads and keystones the first floor windows with stone aprons. Aprons of wings and centrepiece have carved fruit festoons. Pedimented dormers with paired leaded casements. Centre-piece takes form of blind pedimented portico with attached Ionic pilasters and entablature. Sashes within portico have shouldered architrave surrounds with keyblocks. Central four-pane sash and door have similar surrounds with husk drops, the door with open segmental pediment containing elaborate shield with Devonport cipher and festoons. Lunette in pediment. Central octagonal wooden cupola with leaded lights, domed copper roof and wooden ball finial. Attached to right end of house is a brick screen wall with pair of gate piers. This masks single storey service wing which has six bays of tripartite sashes, central louvred turret with ogee lead roof, and pair of gate piers at far end. South front to garden, has nine bays with sashes and dressings similar to north front. Pedimented centre-piece has three first floor sashes with voussoirs and festooned aprons, over in-set loggia with four Ionic columns. Round window in pediment with carved foliage surround and drops. Flanking bays have two storey canted bay windows. Outer bays are set back. East front has two external chimneys with knapped flint and stone chequers. West front has fine stone doorcase with banded rustication, Ionic columns, open segmental pediment, and scrolls flanking sash above.

Interior: part in Jacobethan style, notably the long ground floor room in east wing and the south west ground floor room with bay window. Both are panelled and have richly carved wooden overmantels to fireplaces; the latter room also has Jacobethan plasterwork with foliage scrolls and grotesques to frieze and soffits of beams. Other rooms have C18-style panelling and bolection moulded fireplaces, the hall with central screen of two Ionic columns, pedimented doorcases, and two oval windows in festoon surrounds. Open-well staircase with turned balusters. Building undergoing extensive restoration and redecoration at time of survey, 1985.

Listing NGR: SU8209584414

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17540783

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)