Description

SJ 50 NW ATCHAM C.P. CRONKHILL

5/43 Cronkhill
29.1.52

GV I

House. 1802, by John Nash, incorporating smaller C17 and C18 house.
Stuccoed brick lined as ashlar with grey sandstone dressings; hipped slate
roofs. Italianate style; rectangular plan with circular tower to north-
east and square tower to south-west. 2 storeys with 3-storey towers.
Plinth, deep eaves with paired brackets; integral brick stacks to towers.
Glazing bar sashes, round-arched to first floor. Central block of 2 bays
with one bay returning to left; first-floor arched window and 3 ground-
floor 15-pane sashes to front; round-arched loggia of 6 x 4 bays on 2
steps with chamfered square piers, moulded dentil cornice, and balustraded
parapet. Tower to right with 3 round-arched ground-floor windows to front,
and in first floor to front and right; string to second floor with oeils-
de-boeuf at front and back and blind oeil-de-boeuf to right, and pyramidal
roof with globe finial and weathervane. Right-hand return front:
2 bays; projecting ground floor with moulded dentil cornice to balustraded
parapet; recessed arched niche to left with Roman (?) amphora; depressed
arch to right to porch with groin vault springing from moulded imposts,
niches to left and right, and 4 flush-panelled door (top panels glazed)
with flush-panelled side-lights, moulded architrave and cornice, and
depressed-arched fanlight. South-west tower with ground-floor 15-pane sash,
first-floor round-arched glazing bar sash, and second-floor 8-pane sash.
2 round-arched sashes at rear. Service wing to south: C17 with C18 wing
at rear and circa 1802 refacing to east. Timber framed, extended in red
brick to west and refaced and eaves raised to east; slate roofs. T-plan.
2 storeys and 2 storeys and gable-lit attic. Central brick ridge stack and
external brick end stack to wing. Framing: square panels, 5 from sole-
plate to wall-plate; short straight corner braces. East front: 5 bays;
round-arched glazing bar sashes. Rear wing: south front: first-floor
glazing bar sash; 2 ground-floor segmental-headed glazing bar sashes (that
to right partly blocked) flanking central segmental-headed 6-panelled door.
Earlier photographs of the house show painted imitation oeils-de-boeuf
windows to the top storey of the tower, now painted over. Interior not
inspected, but known to be of interest; despite the tower there are no
circular rooms within except at the top. Cronkhill was built for Francis
Walford, Lord Berwick's estate agent at Attingham, whose monument stands
in Atcham churchyard (q.v.). The design was exhibited at the RA in 1802
as a "Villa in Shropshire". Its importance is as the first Italianate
villa and the progenitor of much C19 house building, and also its place
in the Picturesque movement, showing influence from the paintings of Claude
Lorraine and Poussin. A drawing probably by Nash and now in Sir John Soane's
museum shows the house without stacks and with a rebuilt service wing with
tower to left. B.o.E., p.116; Terence Davis, The Architecture of John
Nash, Studio (1960), Pp.23 and 36-7; J. Summerson, The Life and Work of
John Nash. Architect, London (1980), p.42.

Listing NGR: SJ5357708283

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Cronkhill at Wikipedia
• Cronkhill official website
• Wikidata Q5187721

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.

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