Building record 2929/2/1 - Cottesbrooke Hall

Cottesbrooke Hall was built between 1702 and 1711 comprising a two storey central block with adjoining pavilions, linked by segmental arches. Architect unknown but reputed to be Francis Smith of Warwick with extensions by Robert Mitchell c1770-95. Altered again in the 19th century, in 1912 to designs by R Weir Schultz and in 1937 to designs by Wellesley and Wills. Brick with ashlar dressings, with lead and slate roofs.

{1} Country House, c.1702-13. Architect unknown but reputed to be Francis Smith of Warwick with extensions by Robert Mitchell c1770-95. Brick with ashlar dressings, with lead and slate roofs. Double pile symmetrical house with attached pavilions, 2 storeys with basement and attic. South front, house of 7 window range divided 2:3:2 by giant pilasters with Corinthian capitals supporting entablature with pulvinated frieze and modillion cornice breaking forward above the capitals of each pilaster. Above the cornice is a parapet of alternating plain and balustraded panels with urns above the pilasters. Central doorcase with attached pillars supporting entablature and scroll pedement decorated with florets and foliage. The glazed double door is set in a finely moulded stone architrave. Tall 15 paned sash window with moulded stone surrounds. The shallow pitched roof is not visible. Brick stacks symmetrically above pilasters. Central lead spirelet with weathervane. The bowed ends of the north front are visible projecting to either side of the south front. The flanking pavilions are linked by quadrants of 7-bays separated by diminative Ionic pilasters. The central bay of each quadrant has a shallow stone niche with acanthus leaves springing from the keystone. Each pavilion is single storey with basement and attic. South elevations: Central windows with moulded stone architraves and flanking rusticated pilasters supporting a pediment which is carried above eaves level. Hipped roofs with round-headed dormers. The elevations facing the forecourt are similar with central Tuscan entrances. North front: Similar with additional flanking bays 1795 by Robert Mitchell. Central entrance and steps added in 1937. Each pilaster has a separate entablature. The east and west fronts are dominated by the large bows added by Mitchell in 1795 to terminate the extension to the north front these are in a neo-classical style. Interior: Entrance hall, centre of north front; moulded cornice with early roccoco ceiling of 1750. Dining room to left of entrance; moulded wood doorcases, fireplace with freestanding columns of veined brown jasper. Adam style ceiling of wreathed laurel and foliage by Mitchell. Drawing room to right of entrance; marble fireplace, ceiling of interlacing patterns incorporating urns and foliage with similar motifs in cornice; probably by Mitchell. Central spine corridor has arcaded ceiling with roundel decoration. Main staircase: Early C18 between north and south fronts has black Northamptonshire marble treads with fine wrought iron balustrade by William Marshall. Roccoco wall panel decoration of 1760 incorporating urns with eagle and lion in main first-floor panels, forge arch-headed window at half landing. Pine room: originally the entrance hall, contains original bolection moulding panelling. Roccoco ceiling of 1750. Library to right of pine room has screen with columns at south end and fireplace with Roccoco overmantel re-set from elsewhere in 1937. First-floor: Empress suite of 2 rooms, south front both with marble fireplaces the right having Wedgewood style insets. North front, east room has Adam style fireplace and frieze. West room has marble fireplace with brown reeded inlay. The Ballroom, in the west pavilion was formed from kitchens in 1937 has a chimney piece from Woburn Abbey. The study to the left of ballroom has C17 panelling from Pytchley Old Hall. Garden features with lead and stone urns attached to south front. C18 walls with gatepiers attached to south front of pavilions and to rear of west pavilion and offices at rear of west quadrant. The house was remodelled by Lord Wellesley in 1937-38 and the main entrance changed from the south to the north front.

{4} Formal gardens of largely C20th date with work by several designers including R.W. Schultz, G.Jellicoe and S. Crowe, and later C18th landscape park, associated with an early C18th country house.
In the second quarter of the C17 the two manors of Cottesbrooke were acquired by Sir John Langham (d 1671), a successful member of the Levant and East India Companies who was building up an extensive estate in Northamptonshire. He served as MP and Lord Mayor of London, and was created baronet in 1660. His grandson John (d 1746), fourth Baronet, who inherited in 1700, was the first of the family permanently to reside at Cottesbrooke, beginning the present house in 1702. He served as sheriff in 1703, and his apparently wide interests in architecture and music are reflected in the design of Cottesbrooke Hall. Repairs were undertaken during the time of James Langham (d 1795), seventh Baronet, MP and sheriff, who also did work in the park, in the later 1770s digging a lake and building new lodges and approaches. The Langhams retained Cottesbrooke until 1911, when it was sold by the thirteenth Baronet to R B Brassey. In 1937 it was again sold, to the MacDonald-Buchanans. It remains in private hands in 1998.
Cottesbrooke Hall is one of the candidates for the prototype of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (guidebook).
Cottesbrooke lies on a minor road north-east of Brixworth, which lies on the A508 roughly midway between and c 15km distant from Northampton to the south and Market Harborough to the north. Cottesbrooke can also be reached via the A50 Northampton to Leicester road, which passes 2km to the west. The Hall lies to the north of the village, with its park extending for 2.5km along the settlement’s east and north sides. The area here registered extends to c.250 ha.

Cottesbrooke Hall (listed grade I) is orientated north-west to south-east; for convenience it and its gardens are here described as if orientated north-south, with the original entrance front to the south. It was rebuilt on a new site north of the village between 1702 and 1711, on an axis aligned on Brixworth church 5km to the south-east. William Smith (d 1724), elder brother of Francis Smith of Warwick, played some role in the design process. The original two-storey, seven-bay, south entrance front, of brick with giant pilasters and dressings of Ketton stone, is linked by quadrants to service pavilions for kitchen and stables behind which are yards with further ancillary buildings. The house was enlarged in the late C18 by Robert Mitrchell (fl 1770s-1809), who added an additional blind bay at each end of the north, garden front and created a sequence of large rooms for entertainment across the same. In 1937 the interior was rearranged, and the entrance and garden fronts reversed so that the Hall is now entered from the north, while a formal garden occupies the former entrance forecourt. The architects of the 1937 alterations were Gerald Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) and Trenwith Wills.

{5} Probably built by Francis Smith of Warwick for Sir John Langham between 1700-10. The two wings contain the stables and offices and enclose what was the entrance court. Alterations took place between 1770-80 by Robert Mitchell for Sir William Langham. There are estate accounts for alterations carried out at the end of the C18th.

{6} Post medieval country house of Cottesbrooke Hall. The manor of Cottesbrooke was bought by London Merchant John Langham in 1637. His grandson Sir John Langham built the present hall.

{7} Early C18th house.

{9} The residence of Sir John Langham, an elegant modern-built brick house standing at the entrance to the town… The present possessor John Langham succeeded in 1700.

{10} Two undated photos;

{11} Entry reads - "Cottesbrooke Hall, Cottesbrooke - Major Macdonald-Buchanan".

{13} Eyre's map shows a more formal landscape than is apparent today.

{14} "Cottesbrooke Hall" nos.34+35; sketches not found in vol.17.

{18} [Former list description] (SP 71107393)Cottesbrooke Hall (NAT) (1)

I Cottesbrooke Hall

Early C.18 (1700-1710? Henry Jones, architect of All Saints Church and County Hall, Northampton). Consists of a large central block and 2 smaller blocks joined to it by segmental arcades. The building is of brick with limestone dressing. The main block is 2-storey and semi-basement (7 windows). There is a central breakforward (3 windows). 4 pilasters with Ionic capitals rise from the ground floor to an entablature which is surmounted by a balustrade screening the roof. The windows are set in wide architraves. The entrance is approached by a flight of stone steps and the doorcase consists of 2 pilasters supporting a broken segmental pediment. The pavillions, which have hipped roofs are very much lower than the main block.
There is a good stone doorcase on both, plain doorway flanked by Doric pilasters, supproting an entablature with decorated frieze and surmounted by a broken segmental pediment. In the break there is a circular light. Country Life ref:- LXXIX, 168, 194.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 4+14/121 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G01 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN44900.

<3> Jenkins S., 2003, England's Thousand Best Houses, p.541 (unchecked) (Extract). SNN104722.

<4> English Heritage, 1994, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1994, Northamptonshire), (part checked) (Report). SNN1324.

<5> 1986, Country Life (1986), MAY 15/1328 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN17524.

<6> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.57 Site 6 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<7> Heward J.; Taylor R., 1996, The Country Houses of Northamptonshire, p.141 (unchecked) (Book). SNN41757.

<8> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.163 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<9> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.553 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<10> Photographs of buildings in Cottesbrooke (Photographs). SNN112100.

<11> Cadman G., 2014, 20th Century Military Archaeology in Northamptonshire: Logs 1, 2 & 3, p.5 (unchecked) (Report). SNN104868.

<12> LIST OF 'CONVALESCENT HOMES & AUXILIARY HOSPITALS', 697 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45842.

<13> Eyre T. (Revised by Jefferys T.), 1779, Map of the County of Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Map). SNN1852.

<14> CLARKE G., 1850, Pencil Sketches, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45702.

<15> English Heritage, 1991, Register of Parks & Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (1991, Northamptonshire), (checked) (Report). SNN1167.

<16> Hickman C., 2013, Theraputic Landscapes: A History of English Hospital Gardens Since 1800 (Book). SNN109142.

<17> Historic England, COTTESBROOKE HALL, COTTESBROOKE (plans) (Archive). SNN115397.

<18> Cadman, G, 2021, Pottery wasters at 1 High Street, Stanion, District of Brixworth. August 1950, p. 13 (Note). SNN112933.

<19> Historic England, COTTESBROOKE HALL, COTTESBROOKE, BF061859 (Archive). SNN115396.

Record last edited

Oct 24 2024 11:45AM