The Orangery

The Orangery

This orangery at Blithfield was designed by James Stuart around 1769 for Sir William Bagot and built under the supervision of Samuel Wyatt. Stuart was known as 'Athenian' Stuart for his scholarly promotion of the Greek style in architecture. Bagot knew Stuart through his work for his neighbour Thomas Anson at Shugborough in the 1760s, which included an orangery now demolished. Samuel Wyatt also worked on a new drawing room for Bagot in the same year as the orangery was constructed.

The building is constructed of brick, with the front south-east elevation and return elevations clad in limestone ashlar; the rear elevation is bare brick. The front glazed roof and its timber structure and glass date from the twentieth century. The glass was blown out during the Second World War when a bomb dropped in a neighbouring field. Substantial works were undertaken to the orangery in the 1920s and 1960s. The design is thought to have been used by Samuel Wyatt, perhaps with his brother James, in building an orangery for nearby Ingestre Hall soon afterwards.

The exterior comprises a long rectangular structure of a single storey, with a central section of nine bays flanked by tripartite pavilions, the whole raised on three steps. The nine central bays are open, being defined by baseless Tuscan pilasters; these bays formerly held full-height vertical sashes, for which the timber runners survive. The three bays of the pedimented pavilions are also defined by pilasters; at the centre of each pavilion is a six-panelled door, thought to be original, contained within a moulded doorframe with console brackets rising from acanthus leaves and supporting a flat hood. To either side is a round-headed niche. Above the doors and niches are fluted friezes; above these, rectangular panels. A narrow dentilled-eaves cornice runs along the front elevation, continuing around each return elevation; these ashlar-clad elevations are defined by clasping pilasters. A brick modillion-eaves cornice surmounts the long central section of the brick rear elevation. This elevation has applied porticos to each end, echoing the front pavilions. To the east, the pilasters frame a row of three blind rectangular windows with gauged-brick arches, not separated by pilasters; to the west, the central bay has been filled by a doorway at a later date.

Beneath the east end is a small oval subterranean chamber with an arched ceiling, accessed by an external stair; the chamber is lined with white Victorian tiles. It is not known what the original function of this room was, nor whether it was constructed at the same time as the rest of the orangery, and its use may have changed over time. Possible functions include the storage of fruit and the protection of especially tender plants, whilst it may have been connected with the heating of the orangery, or have been used as a plunge pool or shrine.

The interior floor is paved with stone flags, with areas demarcated by bull-nosed stone edging. The long central section of the orangery is separated from the pavilions by arches filled with multi-pane glazed screens, which are not original. On the back wall is a stone plaque inscribed with a poem said to have been written by the first Lord Bagot in celebration of the 'Progeny of milder Climes' the orangery was built to house, and of his wife Elizabeth, whose particular care they were.

The orangery stands in the garden of Blithfield Hall, a substantial country house with medieval origins; the fabric of the house is now largely sixteenth-century, with notable additions of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Family drawings show designs for an orangery similar to the one at Blithfield, but Doric rather than Tuscan, having a triglyph frieze and with pedimented doorcases and urn finials to the end pavilions. Drawings for an unexecuted scheme for altering the house may also have been supplied by Stuart.