Haineshill

Haineshill is a large country house of late 16th-century origin, substantially altered and extended during the 18th and 19th centuries. It represents an important example of domestic architecture spanning three centuries, with significant historical associations.

The oldest part of the house faces west and is U-shaped in plan, constructed of brick with bonded rusticated brick quoins, a projecting plinth, and moulded brick strings over the ground floor windows. A moulded brick cornice runs over the first floor windows. Stone copings cap the gables and parapet, and the roof is of old tiles. Large chimney stacks with rectangular bases feature strings and cornices carried around their full height, with tall octagonal shafts of moulded bases and elaborate offset heads with projecting angles.

The house rises to three storeys with attics. The gabled ends of the projecting wings facing west each contain a two-light attic casement window, two similar two-light casements on the second floor, and two sash windows on the first floor set within brick architrave surrounds that preserve the footprint of the original openings. The ground floor is similarly treated, except the left-hand wing has a door in its right-hand bay. On the inner faces of these wings a central gable rises; the north wing has two four-light mullion and transom windows on the second floor, two similar sash windows on the first floor, and one sash in the right-hand bay at ground level. The south wing displays a two-light attic casement, two two-light mullioned windows on the second floor, and two four-light mullion and transom windows on the first floor.

The centre section was altered in the early 18th century. It features a broad gable with a large bulls-eye window in the tympanum, beneath which sits a wide two-storey angular bay open at ground floor level with stone Doric columns at the angles and piers on the wall face supporting a stone entablature. The upper part is of brick with a moulded stone string at first floor cill level, a moulded stone cornice, and parapet. The first floor contains three tall sash windows; on the inner face at ground level is a central glazed door flanked by sash windows.

The south front displays three Dutch gables with similar strings, cornices, and stone copings to the gables and parapet between them. The left-hand and centre gables each have a two-light attic casement, two two-light second floor casements, and two sash windows on the first floor. At ground floor level the left-hand gable contains a sash window in its left-hand bay and a blocked four-light mullion and transom window to the right. The centre gable has a similar sash to the left and a door to the right. The right-hand gable, altered in the 18th century, has a similar attic casement over a semi-circular three-light sash on the ground floor, a large Doric Palladian window on the first floor, and another large three-light sash at ground floor level.

The east block, dated to 1760, is of red brick with a projecting stone plinth, a stone string at ground floor cill level, and a moulded and bracketed stone cornice with stone blocking course. It presents nine bays to the east, of which the three centre bays project slightly beneath a pediment. The block is two storeys tall. All windows are tall sashes within moulded stone architrave surrounds; the second windows from both the right and left ends at ground floor level have cornices supported on console brackets. A glazed central door is sheltered beneath a large stone Doric porch of two columns, two wall pilasters, and an entablature.

The interior contains a 16th-century long gallery in the older part of the house.

The house was originally built by the Windebank family. Sir Francis Windebank, a friend of Archbishop Laud who frequently stayed at Haineshill, was an important figure in early 17th-century politics. During the Civil War the house came into the possession of the Bigg family, who occupied it until the 18th century and undertook alterations in 1716. From the Biggs it descended to James Edward Colleton, who in 1760 added the large block on the east side. It subsequently passed to the Garth family; Captain Thomas Colleton Garth of that family founded the Garth Hunt, which first met at Haineshill in 1852.