Wormleybury

Wormleybury is a large country house rebuilt between 1767 and 1769 by Robert Mylne for Sir Abraham Hume, with further work completed in 1781-2. The house incorporates a building dating from 1734. The interior decoration was undertaken between 1777 and 1779 by Robert Adam. The exterior is of brown brick with gauged red brick window lintels, featuring a stone portico with steps, a stucco basement, and dressings. It is two and a half storeys high over a basement, and has cornice bands marking the 1st floor and attic levels. The facade has a symmetrical arrangement of six windows, with a slightly recessed central section featuring a giant, Ionic, tetrastyle portico with a pediment. The garden elevation is distinguished by a full-height, central, canted bay window.

The interior includes three rooms designed by Adam: an entrance hall with Roman Doric attached columns and aedicules; a drawing room featuring painted roundels by Angelica Kauffman; and a staircase with an oval dome, a 1st floor gallery, and raised stucco panels on the walls. A service courtyard to the west is entered through an archway containing a clock tower, and has a square plan with tunnel vaults. The 1st floor of the courtyard features slightly projecting pedimented clock and window panels. An octagonal bell turret with an ogee leaded cupola on a square, weatherboarded base completes the composition.