Woolmer'S Park With Attached Outbuildings And Wall

Woolmer's Park is a country house with attached outbuildings and a wall, dating back to the 18th century, with substantial rebuilding undertaken between 1796 and 1802 by J. Lewis for the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. It was subsequently altered for Sir J. St. Aubyn and remodelled and extended between 1821 and 1833 by C.R. Cockerell for Sir Gore Ouseley. An east wing was destroyed in 1947, and further alterations have since occurred. The house is constructed of stuccoed brick with hipped slate roofs and is in a neo-classical style.

The garden front has two storeys and a 1:6:1 bay arrangement. It features a Greek Doric colonnade in antis at its centre on the ground floor, a first-floor balcony with ornamental ironwork, and a cornice to parapet. Full-height canted bays with pediments flank the central section, and tall 15-pane recessed sash windows are present throughout. Axial stacks are a prominent feature. The left return, serving as the entrance front, is three bays wide, with central steps leading to a double door recessed within a distyle in antis Roman Doric porch. The doors are double-glazed with a reeded lintel and a large semi-circular fanlight. A first-floor sash window projects centrally with a pediment. Tripartite sashes are to the outer bays, with dummy windows to the right, and a plat band separates the storeys. The right return displays a ground-floor 'Venetian' window with reeded mullions under a segmental arch, and two first-floor sashes topped with a cornice to the parapet.

A four-bay, three-storey service block extends to the rear left, angled inwards; two bays towards the rear project. Sashes with blind windows are on the second storey. Two bays to the rear incorporate an entrance, and a first-floor round-headed sash with a balconette. A large tripartite stair window is located to the rear of the main block. Further one- and two-storey blocks have been added to the rear, enclosing a service yard, all stuccoed with a mix of casements and sashes.

Inside, the entrance lobby features stone and slate paving and an apsidal niche. Reeded door surrounds lead to a triple groin-vaulted hall with fluted pilasters and an open-well staircase with scrolled ironwork balustrade and a moulded handrail. The drawing room contains 18th-century fielded panelling, pilasters, and overdoors, along with an 18th-century chimney-piece. The dining room is a cube with one apsidal and one recessed end, corner apsidal niches, and coving to the plaster ceiling, featuring an 18th-century sculpted marble chimneypiece and further early 19th-century detailing.

Extending from the laundry block to the right and returning to the rear is a red brick wall approximately 5 meters in height, originally forming two sides of a stable yard; it contains blocked openings with gauged brick segmental heads. A previous house on the site is believed to have been designed by I. Ware and occupied in the 1760s by J. Collins, a calico printer. The property is set within landscaped grounds.