Listed Building: Courteenhall House and attached offices (5/39)

Country House. Built 1791-93 by Samuel Saxon for Sir William Wake, 9th baronet. Limestone ashlar - local limestone with Weldon stone dressings - hipped slate roof, brick lateral and ridge stacks. Modified double-pile plan. Neo-classical style. 3 storeys and basement. 5-bay entrance front has central part-glazed double-leaf doors, approached by 5 stone steps in moulded wood surround with overlight, flanked by three-quarter Tuscan columns and narrow 8-pane sash windows. Blank panel above door, plain frieze either side with dentilled cornice, door and side windows within shallow segmental-headed recess. 12-pane sash windows to ground floor in similar recesses, all with moulded stone surrounds on brackets with paterae. Similar sashes to 1st floor with flat-arched heads. 6-pane sashes to basement and attic floors. Weldon stone plinth. Central 3 bays break forward and ground floor arches linked by cornice moulding with plain frieze moulding to piers. First floor sill band, dentilled stone eaves cornice and blocking cornice. Steps flanked by low stone plinths bearing cast-iron standard lamps with circular globes and finials. 7-bay garden front has similar set of sash windows, those to ground floor of 3-bay centre flanked by Ionic columns with plain frieze and dentilled cornice, and all set within segmental-headed recesses. Centre breaks forward and has low pediment with oeil-de-boeuf window. Left side elevation of 5 bays has similar sets of sash windows and central part-glazed door to library with pedimented stone surround and approached by low double-armed stone stairs with elliptical-arched window below landing with cast-iron grille. Central 3 bays break forward and have pediment. Right side elevation has flat-arched sash windows, those either end blank and central single-storey link corridor to offices and kitchen court. Attached offices of one storey and attic with hipped slate roofs surround 3 sides of courtyard, the 4th side enclosed by single-storey segmental arms flanking carriage-way. Offices include former kitchen and laundry. Square louvred cupola to range facing garden with gilded ball finial and weathervane. Main range has very deep bracketed eaves to courtyard and 6-pane sash windows. Interior: hall has chequered stone paving with black diamond insets and 3-bay column screen at inner end with Roman Doric columns. Plaster frieze with garlanded paterae. Dining Room has plaster frieze with vine garlands and panels with playing cherubs in low relief. Column screen to inner end wall with Corinthian columns. Central sideboard recess within screen with elliptical-arched head filled with plasterwork fan motif. Library has segmental apse to inner end wall with 2 curved niches, each with pair of fluted columns with capitals based on those of the Tower of the Winds in Athens; open lunettes above entablature and scalloped coves. Fitted bookshelves. Plaster panels above and plaster anthemion frieze. Staircase hall has stone cantilever open well staircase with simple iron balustrade with anthemion and mahogany ramped and wreathed handrail. Original marbled walls and glazed oval dome. Spinal 2-storey corridor to first floor with similar glazed oval dome and internal sash windows lighting attic corridors. Round-arched recesses frame doors to principal bedrooms either side. Seat of the Wakes. (Landscaped Park, by Repton, included in the H.B.M.C. Register of Parks and Gardens of special historic interest at Grade II; Country Life, 12-19 August 1939; R. Richardson 'New Vitruvins Britannicus' 1810 plates 67-70)

Record last edited

Dec 9 2021 10:44AM