Aldermaston Court

Aldermaston Court is a house on Church Road that originated in 1636 but was substantially rebuilt in 1848-51 by the architect P.C. Hardwick, with further additions dated 1894 (visible on rainwater heads). The building is constructed of red brick with grey diapering and Bath stone dressings, featuring string courses, mullioned and transomed windows, coped parapets, and gables with footstones, kneelers and capstones. The slate roofs are topped by eight chimney stacks, each consisting of moulded round shafts with octagonal bases and oversailing caps.

A prominent tower to the west rises in four stages, built in brick and stone with panelled flushwork, shafted corners carved with figures, and a battlemented parapet leading to a squat double-pitch slate spire. The spire features three cusped lights on each face with lucanes on the concave top stage and a ball finial. The tower displays six arched lights with a clock above on each face of the top stage, three and one light windows on the first and second stages respectively.

The main house is planned irregularly on an L-shape with a service wing to the north, executed in Free Elizabethan style. The east front contains a projecting wing with a canted two-storey bay rising to a battlemented parapet and six-light window in a gable above, flanked by a stack with four shafts. The return wall features a gable with a two-light window, two three-light first-floor windows flanking a six-light window, and a carved coat of arms on the ground floor with hoodmould and flanking fenestration. Two gabled dormers and two eight-light first-floor windows occupy the right section. The central block of the east front displays two gabled dormers, a ridge stack with four shafts, four six-light first-floor windows, and ground-floor windows of four and two lights. A half-octagonal porch with buttresses and four-centered arches features carved spandrels and a battlemented parapet. Inside the porch is a brick vault with stone ribs on foliated capitals, a mosaic floor, a four-centered archway with two doors, a stone plaque, and a four-light window with stained glass. To the right, a projecting block with a gable and three-light window precedes a larger gable with planted timbers and decorated barge boards, accompanied by a 17-light first-floor window and a ground-floor square bay with a 14-light window. An asymmetrically gabled service wing adjoins to the right. Forecourt walls to the east display arched balustrade and square corner piers.

The south front is symmetrical except for chimney stacks, with projecting wings at either end. These wings have square ground-floor bays rising to canted bays on the first floor with battlemented parapets, gables above with two-light windows, and stacks with two shafts on inner faces. The central composition comprises a canted bay with a four-centered arched doorway with carved spandrels and half-glazed doors, rising to a smaller first-floor canted bay with battlemented parapet and a gable above featuring a six-light window flanked by two-shaft stacks. Nine-light ground-floor windows flank the central bay, with first-floor cross windows and stepped three-light windows in the gables above.

The west front features a canted bay to the right rising to a smaller first-floor bay with parapet and finial extending into a gable flanked by two-light windows. A gabled dormer to the left contains a nine-light window above an irregular staircase window. Another canted bay to the left rises to the first floor with battlemented parapet and six-light windows, with a gable above featuring a two-light window. An arched doorway with steps and arched side lights is flanked by a gabled dormer to the right of a ridge stack with five shafts. A projecting block to the left displays an eight-light ground-floor window, a six-light first-floor window, and a two-light window in a gable. An asymmetrically gabled service wing adjoins to the left.

The interior contains a six-flight square-well staircase dating to circa 1636, the original feature retained from the 17th-century building. The staircase is of exceptional quality and rarity, being one of the earliest examples to employ a pierced parapet with grotesques, mythical beasts, and coats of arms rather than conventional balusters. The carved newel posts are topped with allegorical figures. The 19th-century interiors are of considerable quality, including a double-height panelled entrance hall with arches and balustrading to a landing at the west and south, and a fireplace to the south featuring a four-centered arch with carved spandrels and figures. The library to the south contains some 16th-century heraldic glass salvaged from the earlier house. A corridor to the east features 19th-century stained glass of saints by A.L. Moore. The house was rebuilt in 1848-51 for Daniel Highford Burr and includes a drawing room and dining room.

The extensive grounds include remains of 19th-century planting schemes and two ornamental lakes.