Tickford Abbey

Tickford Abbey is a house, now used as a nursing and residential care home, located in Newport Pagnell. It stands on the site of a small Cluniac abbey founded in 1100, which was rebuilt after partial destruction by fire around 1311. The abbey was partially occupied as a house after the early 16th-century suppression of minor houses, with the earlier buildings finally cleared away around 1757 prior to the construction of the existing house.

The current building dates to circa 1757, built for John Hooton, a gentleman and lace merchant. It is constructed of ashlar limestone between slender end-pilasters, with a rendered crenellated parapet and slated roofs with octagonal shafted stacks. The house is square on plan and rises to three storeys, presenting a symmetrical composition of five bays to its main west-facing front.

The principal front features a diminutive central porch, altered in the 20th century to a lobby with side access. The ground-floor end bays are fitted with paired timber windows set within square 19th-century crenellated bays. At the centre, above the porch, a narrow canted two-storey oriel rises to parapet level, fitted with heavily-moulded six-pane timber windows. On the first floor, either side of the oriel, are similar cross-windows set in line-rusticated surrounds; the second floor contains similar windows without the rusticated surrounds. Grouped stacks rise over bay two and between bays four and five.

The main front elevation continues southward with a two-storey lean-to and a single-storey service range featuring a crenellated parapet set back from the main wall plane. The north elevation, overlooking the lawns and river, returns at three storeys for two bays and contains a blocked door within a rusticated and pedimented doorcase, above which is a bust of a monk claimed to be medieval but probably dating from the 17th or early 18th century. To the left of this doorcase is a large 19th-century five-light transomed window containing some stained glass in the upper lights.

An added two-storey bay with end pilasters stands further to the left on the north elevation. This bay features a canted bay window with a parapet and plate-glass windows on the ground floor, with a bold string above. The first floor contains three rectangular windows, their upper lights fitted with small panes. A triglyph frieze embellished with sunflower emblems is topped by a parapet concealing a pitched slate roof and iron finial. The wind-vane is inscribed "PB 1882", indicating work undertaken in that year.

The building continues further to the left at two storeys beneath a hipped slate roof with arcaded red ridge tiles and finial. Three eight-pane windows light the upper level, positioned above a strong mid-wall string. The gable end is pebbledashed with open eaves and tripartite sashes. The rear elevations have been considerably altered.

The house underwent alterations and additions during the early to mid-19th century, and again between 1881 and 1889 by architect Edward Swinfen Harris for Philip Butler, JP. Further internal alterations were made in the late 20th century to accommodate use as a residential home.

The interior, considerably altered in the 19th and 20th centuries, retains several notable features. An arched and moulded Gothic entrance door leads to the stair hall, where a dog-leg stair rising to the left features a good 19th-century moulded cast-iron balustrade. Offset to the rear of the hall is a second hallway, entered through a stone Tuscan arcade of two segmental arches. This hallway has a coved ceiling with exposed battens, a cross-window at its end, and a chair rail.

Off to the left of the stair hall lies a reception room with a moulded open plasterwork cornice and a timber fireplace with a bracketed shelf supported by large inverted consoles. To the rear, on the north side, the late 19th-century dining room features a large moulded recess on its east wall and moulded cross-beams on deep cut brackets rising from stone corbels. The ceiling is panelled with moulded and stained ribs. Panelled doors and 19th-century fireplaces are found throughout the interior.