Gilpin House Orchard Side Cowper and Newton Museum is a Grade II* listed building in the Milton Keynes local planning authority area, England. First listed on 3 March 1952. A Georgian Museum. 2 related planning applications.
Gilpin House Orchard Side Cowper and Newton Museum
- WRENN ID
- swift-banister-amber
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Milton Keynes
- Constituency
- Milton Keynes North MP: Chris Curtis (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 3 March 1952
- Type
- Museum
- Period
- Georgian
- Address
- Gilpin House Orchard Side Cowper and Newton Museum, 30, Market Place, Olney, MK46 4AJ
- OS grid reference
- SP 889 512
- Coordinates
- 52.15258, -0.70092
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Gilpin House, also known as Orchard Side (Cowper and Newton Museum), is a Grade II* listed building located in Olney Market Place. It was the home of the poet William Cowper from 1767 to 1786. The building dates from the early 18th century and features plum brick with light red brick around the openings, complemented by stone dressings. The early 19th-century slate roof has very deep eaves supported by heavy plain brackets arranged in groups of three.
The structure stands three storeys tall, with a brick plinth topped by stone capping, stone floor bands, and rusticated brick pilasters at each end. The central doorway is framed by a stone doorcase with a wide moulded architrave, a pulvinated frieze, and a triangular pediment that breaks the first-floor band. To the right of the central entrance is a matching doorway with three stone steps leading to a six-fielded panelled door, while a low doorway is located on the left side.
The ground floor features five sash windows, while the first and second floors each have eight sash windows. All windows have flat arched heads linked by keystones to the floor bands, with moulded cills and large projecting rectangular aprons made of a brick panel with a stone architrave.
Local climate
Gilpin House Orchard Side Cowper and Newton Museum sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 60% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 2 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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