The Wilderness House

This is a substantial brick-built house of circa 1700, extended around 1770 and again in the 1960s. It is noted for its unusually complete early 18th-century interior and for its association with the renowned landscape designer Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, commemorated by a blue plaque installed in 2011.

Construction and Materials

The main house is built of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with finely executed rubbed brick arches over the ground and first-floor windows. The roof has a distinctive M-shaped profile and is covered with tiles. Four tall chimneys of stock brick, decorated with brick bands, rise from the gable ends. A later extension of around 1770 and a 1960s addition (the latter excluded from the listing as not of special interest) are both constructed in stock brick.

The windows are fitted with six-over-six sash frames without horns. Those on the first floor of the south elevation, featuring wide glazing bars with an ovolo moulding, appear to be original. The windows in the circa 1770 extension have external secondary casements.

Plan and Layout

The main house follows a rectangular double-pile plan aligned on a west-to-east axis, with central doorways on both the north and south elevations. The single-storey circa 1770 extension projects from the east end, while the 1960s kitchen extension (not of special interest) is attached to the west.

Exterior

The house stands two storeys high with an attic and basement. The principal elevations are each of five bays. Although the north doorway was the original main entrance, the south entrance is now more commonly used.

The north entrance is reached by three steps and has a moulded surround sheltered by a modest hood on shaped brackets, thought to date from the 20th century. The glazed door is probably 19th-century. The windows have flush frames with flat arches and unusually moulded brick cills. Basement windows have segmental arches. A wooden eaves cornice runs beneath the roofline, above which are three dormer windows to both north and south elevations. A brick plat band defines the storeys. Plain railings, probably dating from or altered in 1936-7 when the eastern areas were enlarged, edge the steps and basement areas.

On the south elevation, the doorway has a similar surround and hood to that on the north, with a 20th-century glazed door. This entrance is at a slightly lower level and has no preceding steps, resulting in the ground-floor windows sitting rather high in relation to the door. Above the doorway, a stair window at half-storey level breaks through the plat band. The window cills here are plain and angled, formed of moulded brick. At the east end of this elevation, below the eaves, is the blue plaque commemorating Lancelot Brown's residence.

The west and east elevations have squared gables which conceal the M-shaped roof. The west elevation is partially obscured by the 1960s kitchen extension. Above this, the southern chimney projects from the wall, which contains two small 20th-century windows lighting bathrooms on the first floor and in the attic. On the east elevation, the chimneys project between an inserted attic-level window and a fire escape.

The circa 1770 dining room extension has a hipped roof behind a parapet defined by a plat band, and a brick plinth. Its elevations have tall, regularly spaced window openings—two to the north and south, three to the east—though several are blind: one to the north, both to the south, and the central opening to the east. Basement windows on the south elevation are protected by railings.

Interior

The house retains an unusually complete circa 1700 interior. The ground and first-floor rooms feature full-height recessed panelling with ovolo mouldings, dado rails, and matching doors, along with a variety of cornices and original chimneypieces. Except for the north-west dining room, the ground-floor rooms retain shutters.

Entrance and Staircase

The house appears to have been built with an unusual plan for its date. The north entrance leads into a large entrance hall, now used as the drawing room. A plan of 1883 shows this arrangement, and there is no evidence in the building's fabric of earlier alterations. In 1936-7, a partition was constructed to create a passage from the north doorway to the stair to the south, but this has since been removed.

The dog-leg staircase has a closed string with turned balusters featuring vase-shaped sections, a moulded handrail, and plain square-section newel posts. The staircase is panelled to dado level.

Ground Floor

In the original plan, the panelled stair hall gave access to rooms to the east and west, as well as to the entrance hall to the north-east. The dining room was accessed from both the entrance hall and the south-west room. The opening to the west now leads to a corridor formed in 1881-3.

The entrance hall, now the drawing room, is the largest room. It has a chimneypiece with marble slips within an eared moulded frame. To the north is an arched panelled alcove leading to the circa 1770 dining room extension. A doorway to the west leads to the current, and probably original, dining room; the form of the panelling suggests there may once have been another connecting door in this wall, adjacent to the front door.

The dining room, also accessed from the later corridor, has a flush marble firesurround set into the panelling with a moulded shelf above; the shelf immediately above the chimneypiece is more recent. Above the fireplace is a panel with a bolection-moulded frame, a feature seen elsewhere in the house. The room has a box cornice. To either side of the chimneybreast are panelled alcoves containing modern shelves.

The room immediately to the south, within which the corridor has been formed, has a stone firesurround with a convex moulding to the outside and a moulded shelf set into the panelling above. The panelling has been replaced on the north wall, and a narrow cupboard formed to the north of the fireplace. To the south of the fireplace is a new opening to the 1960s kitchen extension.

The south-east room has a similar firesurround with the moulded shelf set immediately above. There is a panelled alcove to the south and a cupboard to the north.

Circa 1770 Dining Room Extension

This room is accessed by a door of the period with raised and fielded panels. It has a chimneypiece decorated with husk festoons to the frieze and drops to the projecting jambs, with roundels to the end blocks. There is a dentil moulding below the frieze and marble slips. The cornice features both dentil and egg-and-dart mouldings, and there is a chair rail. The window openings are panelled with original shutters.

First Floor

All the first-floor rooms have cupboard alcoves to either side of the chimneybreasts, some adapted to hold washbasins. The north-west room has a stone bolection-moulded chimneypiece. Other rooms have firesurrounds with a convex moulding of the design seen elsewhere; in the south-east room this is of marble, with a marble shelf added. In the north-east room, the glass of the eastern window is engraved with the name 'Nadia Romanov', believed to be the granddaughter of the Grand Duchess Xenia.

The south-west room has been divided and converted to a bathroom and separate water closet. The room was divided with the water closet to the north in 1912, and the bath installed in 1936. New mouldings have been added to the partition and the east wall.

Attic

There has been some subdivision within the attic storey, where timber roof trusses are visible. To the north-west is a divided room with surviving plain panelling to the west, incorporating a small chimneypiece with shelving above—in which a later grate has been inserted—with matching cupboard doors to the cupboards on either side. Elsewhere there are plain painted 19th-century chimneypieces.

Basement

The stair to the basement has the same balusters as the main staircase but with a plainer handrail, full-height newel post, and boarded panelling. The basement area, originally home to the kitchen offices, has undergone some rearrangement and changes in use. The eastern part has new floors, though original stone floors survive elsewhere. There is a chimneypiece to the north-east, probably dating from the 19th century and formerly holding the range. Beneath the circa 1770 extension is a vaulted cellar section. Some 19th-century kitchen fittings survive, including a dresser with cupboards in the later section, and there are some shutters. To the west is a large room formerly used as the laundry.