Donnington Grove

Donnington Grove is a house dating from 1772 and circa 1782, designed by John Chute. It is constructed primarily of vitrified grey brick, with a slate roof and two chimney stacks. The building is executed in a Gothick style and comprises a three-storey rectangular main block with projecting bays to the south-west, south-east, and north-east. An adjoining service block is located to the north-west. The windows are largely glazing bar sashes with two lights, with Gothick arched heads, although some have been replaced with conventional sashes. String courses are raised over the windows, both between the ground and first floors and above the third floor. The house features a projecting plinth and a battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles.

The south-west (entrance) front has three bays, with a central projecting square bay and a first-floor oriel window with a battlemented parapet. Arched niches are set into the return walls at first-floor level, containing twentieth-century figures. The central door is framed by a Gothick doorcase with pilasters supporting an open, incurved, triangular pediment. A Gothick order porch extends to either side of the door, incorporating Gothick columns and pilasters supporting a frieze and cornice. A two-storey, one-bay addition is located to the left, featuring a door and parapet. The south-east front also has three bays, with a projecting central half-octagonal bay, containing French casements centrally and to the left. A three-bay, one-storey addition from the late 18th century is situated to the right, again with a parapet. The north-east front mirrors the south-west front with a central projecting square bay. The service block adjoining to the north-west was constructed circa 1800, in brick with a dentil eaves cornice and slate roof, presenting as a two-storey, U-shaped block with square windows with Gothick heads and a central bellcote on the ridge.

The interior retains good, mainly Gothick detailing from 1772. Notable rooms include an entrance lobby with colonnaded aisles and benches, a double-height top-lit staircase hall with a gallery, a morning room with a canted bay on the south-east front, a late 18th-century Wyatt-like saloon to the east, a vaulted billiard room in the basement, and a first-floor room to the south-west with an oriel window and a Rococo chimney piece. Other rooms of note are recorded in the NMR. Donnington Grove represents a very good and complete example of 18th-century Gothick architecture.