Welford Park And Walls To East And West

Welford Park is a large country house situated within a landscaped park, dating to the late 17th century. It was significantly refronted around 1700, with further alterations made in the mid- and late 18th century. The original core is of red brick, with grey brick and red dressings to a later 18th-century extension; the roof is tiled. Originally designed with a U-plan, the recessed area has been filled with an 18th-century extension. The house is three storeys high with an attic, featuring a heavy dentilled eaves cornice, pedimented dormers, and tall stacks with panelled cornices.

The west elevation is dominated by a central dentilled pediment supported on colossal Ionic pilasters with moulded stone bases. There are four dormers clustered towards the centre, with two extruded stacks on the sides and a ridge stack to the left. Seven bays of glazing bar sashes feature open boxes and gauged flat-arched heads, with the ground floor windows lacking glazing bars. A wide, half-glazed front door sits within an architrave surround with a cornice hood and pulvinated frieze on volute brackets. Short brick spurs, 10 metres long and 2 metres high, extend from the house, featuring a keyed and rusticated arch in the wall to the south. The outer walls are of minimal architectural interest.

The south elevation features two dormers and a projecting chimney breast to the left. Irregular fenestration introduces 2 glazing bar sashes on the first and second floors and four on the ground floor, with the first and third from the left being French casements. Alterations to this facade include the placement of the chimney breast partially over two blind windows, all with raised brick surrounds. The east elevation presents a central two-storey bow flanked by three-storey wings. Each wing features two dormers and stacks in the re-entrant corners of the former recess. The façade is arranged as a two-three-two window arrangement; glazing bar sashes are seen on the central bow with panels below. Blind windows with raised brick surrounds and single strips between windows are on the left wing, while the right wing displays glazing bar sashes with open boxes. Contemporary glazed doors, set within a pilastered surround with a flat hood on volute brackets, are located on the ground floor.

A red brick wall measuring 20 metres by 30 metres encloses the east garden on the east and north sides, incorporating arched motifs towards the house on both sides. A single-storey wing of no particular interest projects from the north elevation.

The interior features a vestibule with fielded panelling dating to around 1700 and a late 18th-century fireplace. This opens by three arches to the Staircase Hall, which contains a three-flight open-well staircase with turned balusters, drop stems, mitred rails over panelled newel posts, a closed string, and a closed, shouldered rail. A gallery on the second floor is topped by an umbrella dome with a rectangular top-light and fanned pendentives. The Drawing Room displays mid-18th-century Rococo pelmets and a later 18th-century fireplace with twisted Corinthian columns and a double-curved figured frieze. The Library is similarly decorated with mid-18th-century Rococo pelmets and a marble rococo fireplace.