Description

TL 4412 GILSTON GILSTON LANE
(west side)

9/1 Gilston Park 400
metres along drive
24.1.67 WSW from Cumberland
Lodge

- II*

Country House. 'IH' '1852' on entrance porch. By P C Hardwick
for John Hodgson Esq (1.805-82) (contract drawings in HRO signed
by H and R Holland annotated that house originally to be in red
brick with stone dressings). Tower altered, E door formed,
smoking room and conservatory added and servants' wing extended
to W by A W Blomfield 1887. Bay window on N of entrance, raised
to 2 storeys in 1903 by A C Blomfield (HRO drawings)). A
compactly planned, medium sized, country house of coursed
limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, in Tudor style. Steep
slated roofs with moulded parapets, dormers and gable parapets.
Tall ashlar chimneys with moulded caps and bases. Steep
reticulated leadwork roofs to octagonal turrets. Symmetrically
planned, 2 storeys and attics, double-pile house with staircase
and library to N and S of the large entrance hall in the W range.
Dining room and drawing room formerly to N and S of a central
vestibule in the E range, now linked as one long room. 3 storeys
stone and slate servants' wing attached on N with walled yard
beyond with turret game larder at corner, continuing decorative
Gothic treatment. On W front servants' wing projects
considerably with twin crow-stepped gables, 5-light and 3-light
mullioned and transomed stone windows and relieving arches, and
recessed central door. A higher, battlemented square clock tower
with corner fleche, masks the junction with the W front of the
house. An irregular composition of 2 storeys and attics. A 2
storeys battlemented bay window (upper part 1903) adjoins the
tower and 2 gables flank the central 3 storeys porch. There is a
large battlemented oriel window on the righthand gable. The 2-
light mullioned and transomed windows to the central entrance
hall have armorial stained glass and there is stained glass in
the upper lights of other windows mostly showing birds in
naturalistic settings. The lower part of the porch is of ashlar,
panelled between 4 tall octagonal shafts with spiral moulded tops
carried above.a crenellated capping to support 4 carved stone
animals supporting shields. Tudor-arched entrance door with 6-
panelled doors and cusped and sunk spandrels over. Carved coat
of arms in relief over, with monogram and date to left and right.
Irregular 2-gabled S front with large, stone roofed, canted bay
window. E front of house is symmetrical with 3 cross windows on
1st floor, to each side of canted projecting 2 storeys
battlemented bay. Long, 7-light, buttressed and battlemented,
single storey, flat roofed, rectangular, stone bay windows flank
the garden entrance formed in 1887, with glass canopy and steps.
The straight moulded parapet runs up into a steep central gable
and is interrupted by stone gabled dormers, with corner and
central finials, on each side. Each is flanked by 2 gabled
dormers with cusped bargeboards set back on the roof slope. A
higher octagonal turret adjoins the N end where the
picturesquely grouped service buildings form a background to a
row of assorted tall single storey structures extending the E
front of the house. In order these are: the original gabled and
bargeboarded billiard room with large rooflight in the form of a
gabled louvre; a polygonal buttressed smoking room of 1887 (the
polygonal kitchen of 1852 rebuilt?) with pointed slate roof with
gabled vestry and crocketed finial; and a glass and iron
conservatory, probably of 1887, with low stone walls, geometrical
hipped roof with raised lantern. Grotto pool and quatrefoil
pierced terra-cotta benching within. Baronial entrance hall with
panelled timber ceiling and stone hooded Gothic fireplace.
Original library fittings with heraldic glass in bay window.
Wide wooden staircase with arcaded balustrade and heavy Tudor
octagonal posts with ogee caps at foot. Fire surround in dining
room has C16 renaissance wreathed roundel heads carved on inset
panels probably from New Place. Drawing room has geometric
moulded plaster ceiling and carved wooden overmantle in Jacobean
style c1852. An outstanding mid C19 country house in Tudor style
by P C Hardwick virtually unchanged and with original interiors.
(Pevsner (1977) 146: 2 portfolios of drawings in HRO).

Listing NGR: TL4410712906

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Gilston Park 400 Metres Along Drive West South West From Cumber Land Lodge at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17553731

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)