Hornhill House

Hornhill House is a large house built in 1883, located on Old Shire Lane in Chalfont St. Peter. It is constructed of red brick with stone and timber details and features a tiled roof in the Neo-Georgian style. The building has two storeys and an attic, with a five-window front where the central three bays project slightly.

A prominent feature is the hexastyle Roman Ionic stone portico, which has a segmental cornice with a broken pulvinated frieze and an architrave at the center, with quadrant curves leading back to coupled outer columns. The entrance includes a fielded panelled door topped by a rectangular fanlight, framed by a lugged architrave with a key block. The first floor has three tall sash windows with architraved flush frames, each with eight panes. There is a moulded band at the sill level, gauged brick flat arched heads, and louvred shutters.

The house has modillioned timber eaves beneath a triangular pediment, which features a stone cartouche in the tympanum. The outer bays have tall sash windows on the ground floor with stone key blocks and recessed aprons with moulded bases. The roof is hipped, and the right side of the house, which faces the garden, is symmetrical with five bays and full-height bows at each end. A timber verandah with a pseudo-Ionic colonnade covers the central three bays, supported by coupled outer columns and a bracketed entablature. The first floor has sash windows with louvred shutters, and there are three sashes on each floor in the bows, with ground floor key blocks.

Additional features include a plinth, a moulded band at the first-floor sill level, and a modillioned eaves cornice. A four-light central dormer with a cornice and segmental pediment is present, along with two ridge stacks between the outer bays that have moulded oversailing caps. At the rear, there are two bays with shuttered sashes and a stack. The left return from the front has three storeys and includes a segmental-headed stained glass stair window. Set back to the left is a two-storey service range with sashes and hipped roofs. The interior has not been inspected. Hornhill House is noted as a pioneering example of the Georgian style.