Clopton House And Attached Former Stable Block,Walls And Gate Piers

CLOPTON HOUSE AND ATTACHED FORMER STABLE BLOCK, WALLS AND GATE PIERS

Country house and attached coach house, now flats, with walls and piers. The house has a nucleus dating to around 1600, featuring a north porch and bay window. The south and east ranges were added between 1665 and 1670. The north and west wings are mostly from a circa 1840 restoration or rebuild. The coach house dates to 1843. The buildings are constructed in brick, which has at times been painted or stuccoed, with ashlar and stucco dressings. The roof is hipped tile with brick stacks, including two panelled cross-axial stacks.

The house follows a quadrangular plan in restoration style. The south facade displays 2 storeys with attic accommodation. It comprises 7 bays with a projecting 3-bay pedimented centre. A stucco plinth and platt band run across, with ashlar quoins and cornice to a central brick platt band; the top features a wood modillion cornice and pediment. The entrance has an architrave, rusticated flat arch, and segmental pediment bearing the Clopton arms mounted on the crest, with paired half-glazed doors. The central windows have ashlar surrounds with moulded jambs and 9/6-pane sashes. Narrow return windows have similar brick surrounds and 2 windows with 12-pane sashes occupy the tympanum of the pediment, flanking the arms of Sir Edward Weston (father-in-law to Sir John Clopton). Windows to the ends have stucco surrounds, formerly brick, with 12-pane sashes and 9/6-pane sashes to the first floor. Two gabled 20th-century dormers contain 9-pane windows. The right return is similar, comprising a 7-bay range with an entrance to the left of centre featuring a brick and timber porch with embossed lead panels and paired doors clad with embossed lead and a panel bearing raised lettering: "FHH INSTAURAVIT 1904". A bowed projection to the right end has cornice and 20th-century pebbledash, with windows containing bowed 6-pane margin-light sashes. Other windows have stucco surrounds and 3 dormers with moulded pediments.

The north elevation presents a 2-storey porch with gables to each side, constructed in rubble with a timber-framed first floor. A round-headed entrance has panelled pilasters and an archivolt with flanking terms, with return 2-light windows and first-floor cross-casements. A polygonal bay window to the right end has pilasters, entablature, and a panelled parapet, containing 5 single-chamfered cross-mullioned windows with small-paned glazing. Other windows have small-paned casements with pointed lights. A 2-bay return of the east range appears to the left end, while the right end gable features barge-boards. The west elevation contains small-paned casements and 12-pane horned sashes, with 3 lateral stacks. The courtyard includes 2 stair turrets, one with pyramidal roof and one gabled, plus a 2-storey canted bay window to the south.

The interior of the south range contains a central ground-floor room featuring circa 1600 panelling and a fireplace with a moulded 4-centred arch. The fireplace includes 19th-century turned piers and an overmantel incorporating some 16th-century elements. A window contains much early 19th-century armorial stained glass recording marriages of the Clopton, Warde, Hodgson, and Walker families, along with some earlier quarries depicting flowers and other motifs. The plaster ceiling features cornices, and floorboards are laid in large square panels. A room to the right has overmantel pilasters set with majolica.

The east range features an open well stair with panelled pilasters, 20th-century lamps, and turned balusters. The moulded plaster ceiling displays the Clopton arms on a displayed-eagle crest within a laurel wreath. A first-floor room contains late 17th-century bolection-moulded panelling with dado rail and bolection-moulded fireplace with panelled pilasters, crowned by a rich plaster entablature with swags. Staircases flanking the courtyard include one spiral stair with some turned balusters and one with splat balusters. An attic room served as a chapel, probably originally for 16th-century recusant Catholics, recorded as having wall painting of biblical texts within a heart-shaped frame and a late 17th-century altar rail with heavy turned balusters.

The coach house presents a gabled south elevation with 11 round arches, some retaining door pegs, together with the Warde arms and the date 1843 inscribed in the gable. It is attached to the house by a short wall, and another short wall to the west terminates in a panelled brick gate pier with ashlar cornice and ball finial. The west elevation features 2 gabled wings flanking large segmental-headed openings with late 20th-century glazing and other 20th-century openings. A clock turret with relief enrichment and wind vane crowns this elevation. An attached wall to the north-west angle terminates in a gate pier bearing a rampant lion with cartouche. An attached archway to the north has a range extending to the east.

The house was the home of the Clopton family until the 18th century. It is believed to have been visited by Shakespeare and is one of several locations where he is said to have been married. In 1605, the house was rented by Ambrose Rockwood, one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators.