Berwick House

Berwick House is a country house dated 1731 by rainwater heads, attributed to Francis Smith of Warwick, built for Thomas Powys. It was substantially altered and enlarged in 1878 by Stevens of Birmingham for Mr James Watson, with the later work executed in a Jacobean Revival style.

The house is constructed of red brick with grey sandstone ashlar dressings and has hipped plain tile roofs. The original 1731 block was enlarged at the rear, with an early 18th-century L-plan wing to the north-east (formerly stables) that forms an entrance courtyard.

The south-east front presents the most impressive facade, with a composition of 2:2:1:2:2 bays. A giant Corinthian order of pilasters dominates, with the inner pair unfluted and carved with drops, the middle pair fluted, and the outer pair cable fluted. The plinth is rusticated with a moulded ground-floor cill string course, moulded sub-plinth, and moulded cornice that breaks forward over the pilasters. A panelled attic with dies supports a second moulded cornice, above which sits a 19th-century balustrade with square dies and urn finials with swags. Four 19th-century brick stacks with moulded pilaster strips and cornices rise from the elevation, with further stacks behind the ridge. A 19th-century octagonal lead-covered cupola sits off-centre to the left behind the front ridge, featuring round-arched openings and a double-curved lead cap with finial.

The windows are glazing bar sashes with gauged-brick heads and triple keystones with moulded tops; attic windows have moulded stone cills. The first floor features 19th-century stone balconies on carved brackets and a central first-floor keystone with carved device.

The central feature of the south-east front is a pair of half-glazed panelled doors with an elaborate stone doorcase. This comprises a shouldered and lugged moulded architrave on panelled dies with flanking raised and fielded panels and cable-fluted Corinthian pilasters supporting sections of entablature with continuous frieze between them. An open segmental pediment with broken-back centre crowns the doorcase, featuring much carved ornament in the tympanum including cornucopia, palm fronds and a central shield. Five stone steps with moulded nosings lead up to the door.

The north-east front shows 2:2:2 bays, with the left-hand side blank and some 19th-century windows inserted to the right. A central 19th-century two-storey porte-cochère of 1 by 3 bays to the ground floor features keyed arches and Corinthian pilasters, with first-floor Ionic corner pilasters with carved drops. A pair of half-glazed doors stands behind a screen.

The south-west front has the end of the front range set back to the right with a 19th-century two-storey square bay. The 1878 range to the left displays a giant Corinthian order at the corners and 3 bays with applied orders to each floor, with pediments over central ground-floor windows and a central Flemish gable.

The original 18th-century block features square lead downpipes at each end, with dated and richly decorated rainwater heads and ornamented fixing straps.

The north-east wing, formerly a stable block, rises two storeys with an attic. It has a double-chamfered stone plinth, chamfered stone quoins, and a moulded stone eaves cornice that breaks forward over keystones. Nineteenth-century brick ridge stacks with fluted pilasters and moulded cornices punctuate the roofline. Large 19th-century dormers (three to the front and five to the side) feature glazing bar sashes, ogees in blind segmental tympana, flanking pilasters supporting open triangular-pedimented gables, and tile-hung sides.

The south-east front of this wing shows 2:1:2 bays with boxed glazing bar sashes featuring moulded stone cills and gauged-brick heads (segmental to the ground floor) with triple keystones. A central pair of half-glazed doors has a stone doorcase with moulded architrave, fluted frieze and triangular pediment, approached by three stone steps with moulded nosings. The left-hand return front has eleven bays, mostly with blocked or blind windows except for two ground-floor glazing bar sashes to the right. A door in the third bay from the right features eight raised and fielded panels and a rectangular overlight, with a similar stone doorcase. A keyed segmental-arched through-passageway opens to the left, and some refenestration to the ground floor occurs at the left end.

A link block returns at the north-west end with a 1:3:1 bay composition. The central section is crowned with a three-bay triangular pediment featuring a circular clock in the tympanum surrounded by pilaster strips, moulded cornice and flanking scrolls. A central octagonal wooden cupola with square base sits above, with round arches with keystones, balustrading, dentil cornice, small triangular pediments to cardinal faces, and an ogee lead cap with weathervane. The ground floor was refenestrated in the 19th century with segmental arches now blocked. Nineteenth-century ground-floor additions include a covered walkway flanking two sides of the service courtyard. A circa 1878 brick screen wall bounds the service court, with paired brick pilasters, cornice and balustrade; a segmental-headed doorway opens to the left.

Interior

The interior was substantially remodelled in 1878 by Stevens in an exuberant free Jacobean and Baroque Revival style, though some 1731 work survives. The central ground-floor front room (the former entrance hall) retains original features including raised and fielded bolection-moulded panelling, Corinthian pilasters, and two well-carved over-doors depicting military trophies, attributed to Grinling Gibbons.

The 1878 additions to the rear are organised around a vast central full-height square hall with a balustraded first-floor gallery and a balustraded attic gallery to one side. A clerestorey with stained glass rises above, with coving and pendants above. The hall features panelling, a marble fireplace with pilastered overmantel, and a shell niche beside the first-floor gallery. A 19th-century five-flight square-well staircase with balustrade and square newel posts rises from one side of the hall. Further rooms display panelling, panelled ceilings and fireplaces. The central first-floor room is said to retain early 18th-century panelling and decoration, though the first floor was not inspected in detail.

Historical Context

The house stands within a landscaped park that includes a chapel, almshouses and a Gothic folly. A map made in 1760 by Thomas Ansell (still kept at Berwick) shows the house and stables before the 1878 alterations. It also depicts a pair of fine wrought-iron gates by Robert Davies of Wrexham in the park to the south-east of the house, now at Newnham Paddox in Warwickshire. Robert Mylne made some alterations and additions to the house in 1780, but these no longer survive.