Aldenham House And Stable Block

Aldenham House and Stable Block

Former country house, now a school, on Butterfly Lane. The main house dates to around 1672, built for H. Coghill the Younger. It was extended and altered in 1785 for R. Hucks the Younger, and possibly around 1740 for R. Hucks the Elder. The building was much enlarged and remodelled between 1870 and 1873 for H. H. Gibbs, probably by architect A. Blomfield, with further work undertaken in 1883. The stable block dates to 1785 by builders Gray and Perry.

The house is constructed in Flemish bond red brick with stone dressings, under tiled roofs with Welsh slate to the front pitches. Originally built as an L-plan, it now comprises two storeys and an attic.

The front elevation displays a 2:3:2 arrangement with a slightly projecting centre. At ground floor level, steps with short balustrades lead to an 1870 loggia addition that carefully follows the 17th-century model. An Ionic pedimented portico frames the round-headed central entrance, flanked by glazing bar sashes in moulded flush frames with egg and dart moulding on the lintels. The gauged brick flat arches are topped with a plain stone cornice and stone coped parapet. Projecting piers at the ends of the loggia carry urn finials. The first floor features a central aedicular surround to a smaller window in reveal with lugs and pilaster strips to the jambs, flanked by 18-pane sashes. A mutule eaves cornice and pediment crown the central three bays. Two-light dormers comprise two with segmental heads flanked by two with pedimental heads. The hipped roof has a central valley and two front ridge stacks, rebuilt in the 19th century with corbelled-out caps.

The garden front to the right displays a 2:3:2 arrangement. An 1785 canted bay to the centre features a stone plinth and keyed stone architraves to the centre with flanking stone keys to gauged brick heads. A string course at ground floor sill level and a modillioned cornice with balustraded parapet and four richly carved urn finials run across. The flanking bays echo the front elevation with brick plinth and plat band separating storeys, with a lower moulded course. Three gabled dormers rise to the centre. The hipped roof is topped by a rebuilt axial ridge stack to the rear. An 1883 one-storey porch is attached to the rear of the garden wing, featuring ornate stone dressings, Corinthian pilasters, and a balustraded parapet with pediment and urn finials to the rear. A sundial sits on an extruded stack on the original end wall, with offsets to the 19th-century cap. Flanking sashes and a segmental-headed dormer to the left complete this elevation.

The original left return from the front shows first-floor blind windows. Attached to the left of the 17th-century house and projecting forward is a one-storey 18th-century addition with an Ionic Venetian window to the front and balustraded parapet. Further left and further forward stands an 1870 addition with an attached Ionic order of brick pilasters with entasis, stone bases and capitals. Tall casements with lugged architraves are surmounted by scroll-buttressed panels, frieze and segmental pediment to the central window architrave, which interrupts the cornice and balustraded parapet continuing from the 18th-century block. Further left and set back stands an 1883 clock tower and court room, two storeys tall with sashes, plinth and plat band. Two Dutch gables—the right one interrupted by the clock tower rising above a cornice and round-headed window in a relieving arch—feature small round-headed lights in the tower with small terracotta twisted colonnettes in the reveals. A balustraded stone parapet projects on shaped corbels. The slate roof rises to a clock chamber with segmental pediments to each face, ogee dome and weather vane. Within the inside angle of the original L are rambling two-storey brick extensions of the 18th and 19th centuries. To the rear, an entrance to the 1883 dining room is flanked by a first-floor oriel to the right.

The interior contains significant features. The hall features richly carved panelling and a chimneypiece. The library contains 18th-century doorcases, a chimneypiece and ceiling. The chapel retains 17th-century panelling. The dining room features De Morgan tiles in a large fireplace. Further 18th-century work is evident throughout the ground and first floors. A dogleg stair with barley twist balusters rises through the house. A two-storey 18th-century service wing extends to the rear left, featuring sashes with keyed flat arched heads, plat band, dentilled eaves cornice and parapet, and leads to the stables which enclose a yard.

The stable block dates to 1785 and was built by Gray and Perry, builders for R. Hucks the Younger, with the date recorded on stone. It is constructed in brick under tiled roofs and displays a 2:3:2 arrangement with projecting centre across two storeys. The front elevation features relieving arches over the central entrance and flanking lunettes at ground floor level, with stone sills. A plat band separates the storeys. At first-floor level, a central Diocletian window with key block is flanked by two six-light casements with flat arched heads beneath a dentilled brick eaves and pediment with stone-blocked blind oculus. The gable end features a coped parapet and double ridge. The left return shows ground-floor round-headed windows and first-floor relieving arches over sashes with dentilled cornice. To the left front of the stable block, a wall projects forward to a stone-capped pier with ball finial. Within this wall is a stone plaque recording the enlargement of the house and outbuildings and addition of the tower by H. H. Gibbs in 1870 to 1873. Extending to the right of the main front is a low wall surmounted by a balustrade. Further additions to the north-east are of no special interest.

The site includes a 19th-century formal garden to the east and remnants of early 20th-century water gardens to the north-west. The site was formerly known as Wigbournes.