Alscot Park

Alscot Park, Preston on Stour

A country house of Grade I importance, probably dating from the 17th century but substantially altered around 1750. The south wing was built between 1762 and 1764 by masons Thomas and Edward Woodward and carpenter-surveyors John Phillips and George Shakespear, for and probably designed by James West. A porch was added in 1825 by Thomas Hopper.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with hipped graduated slate roofs and ashlar chimney stacks, designed in the Georgian Gothic style and arranged on a T-shaped plan.

The south front, which faces the entrance, is two storeys with a basement and presents a symmetrical seven-window range. A moulded plinth, string course and top cornice support a crenellated parapet. Polygonal turrets with blind ogee arches, quatrefoils and ogival caps flank the three-window centre. The porch features similar turrets, a cornice and crenellated parapet over a moulded ogee arch, with an ogee-headed entrance containing a panelled door. The windows are ogee-headed with moulded sills and reveals; those to the centre have two lights with 6/6 and 4/4 sashes, while outer windows have 6/6 sashes with intersecting glazing bars. Pierced stone covers protect the cellar lights. Two cross-axial stacks rise from this front.

Each return features a full-height canted bay with three ogee-headed windows to each floor, with similar sashes; ground-floor windows have 6/9 panes. The rear of the south wing has a central forward break with ogee-headed windows to left and right, those to the basement having 3/3 sashes. The ground floor has three sashed windows with 6/6 frames to the east and three blind windows to the west. The first floor has blind windows flanking sashed windows on each side, with similar 6/6 sashes to ground and first-floor returns. At the north-west angle stands a short attached terrace wall with ogee arches over the basement entrance, terminating in an octagonal pier with traceried and Tudor flower panels, a brattished cap and marble urn.

The lower north wing is of three storeys and basement, built into the slope of the river bank, with drip courses, cornice and crenellated parapet. It has two cross-axial stacks and two end lateral stacks. The symmetrical end features a full-height half-octagonal bay with an entrance having moulded reveals to a six-panel door, flanked by two-light moulded-mullioned windows and similar three-light windows to each side with small-paned casements. Ground and first floors have ogee-headed windows with moulded sills and 6/6 or 4/4 sashes, while the top floor has two-light windows.

The west elevation contains a pair of three-storey half-octagonal bays at the right end with two-light basement windows with single lights to the return; the bay to the right has a half-glazed door. Ogee-headed windows with 4/4 sashes stand above. To the left are a basement window and at ground-floor level two paired windows with moulded reveals to 4/4 sashes with thick glazing bars. Two three-light windows with narrow sashes occupy the first floor, and two three-light windows with casements the top floor.

The east side is similar, but to the right of the bays stands an entrance with a fanlight over a four-panel door, to the right of a blocked opening marked by a Sun firemark and bell in cast-iron mounting. The right end breaks forward with three-light basement windows, ogee-headed windows with six-pane sashes to ground and first floors, and two-light windows with small-paned casements to the top floor. Rainwater heads and downspouts are distributed around the house.

Interior

The entrance hall contains Rococo Gothic stucco panelling by Robert Moore, featuring a foliate frieze to a Gothic-style entablature and a fan-like Gothic motif to the centre of the ceiling. Fireplaces at each end have stone trefoil arches with shell motifs above and busts on brackets to the overmantels, with cast-iron grates. An ogee-headed entrance has a bust on a bracket above. Ogee-headed doors occur throughout the interior.

The drawing room to the left has dado panelling and rich architraves to doors. It contains a white marble fireplace with coloured marble inlay, including a large panel of Blue John, and Ionic columns. A rich papier-mâché ceiling with a fan vault pattern, dated 1765, was executed by Thomas Bromwich.

The dining room to the right is noted as having architraves to doors with rich carving and a fireplace similar to that in the drawing room but in Gothic style. An entablature and heavy early Victorian ceiling with pendants complete the decoration.

A 1840s Gothic-style cantilevered staircase features a cast-iron balustrade with some cusping, panelled stucco and a skylight. The library retains 18th-century panelling and an early Victorian ceiling. A 1750s north open-well staircase has a wrought-iron balustrade with scrolly members and scrolly foliage to the soffits, ogee-panelled stucco by Robert Moore, and a skylight.

The basement at the north end of the house retains exposed timber framing with stop-chamfered beams. Some brick-vaulted rooms and flag floors survive.

Significance

Alscot Park is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the two most rewarding Early Gothic Revival Houses of Warwickshire".