Broadspear House, Highclere Estate

Broadspear House, Highclere Estate

An estate house of 18th, 19th and 20th-century dates with two show facades, apparently designed to form an eye-catcher in the landscape surrounding Highclere Castle.

The building is constructed of yellow brick and red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a plain tile roof that is gabled but may originally have been hipped. It is three storeys tall with single-storey outshuts on the north and west sides.

The south front, now facing the garden but appearing to have originally been the entrance front, has three bays built of yellow brick in symmetrical arrangement. The bays are divided by pilasters that rise through all three floors but stop short below the eaves. The central bay contains a doorway with a later 19th or 20th-century red brick porch and semi-glazed door, above which is a small first-floor casement of two lights that may be a later insertion. At second-floor level is a two-light casement with a semi-circular recessed relieving arch, the tympanum of which has been filled with 19th-century fishscale tiles. The lateral bays have two-light casements that diminish in height as the building rises. At the corners are paired pilasters flanking slender bays with niches. These have square heads to the lower storeys but arched heads at second-floor level, where there are also projecting bands between the floors and at mid-storey height.

The west outshut adjoining the south front has a recessed arched bay now containing a window, though the red brickwork below the ledge may indicate it was previously a doorway. The half-gable of the lean-to roof above has red brickwork to the left and yellow bricks to the right.

The east flank has a three-bay symmetrical arrangement with flanking paired pilasters and blank niches similar to those on the south front. The ground floor has a two-light casement beneath which is a panel of red bricks, perhaps indicating a former doorway. The first and second floors have blind rectangular panels at the centre. The gable is stuccoed and has the appearance of a classical pediment. To the right is the half-gabled end of the later rear outshut, which has a round-arched recess containing a two-light window.

The west flank has a 19th-century outshut to the ground floor with a two-light casement at left. The walling above on this gable end is of red bricks and blank, with the two projecting ends of the bands seen on the south front apparent to the second floor at right.

The north side or rear has an outshut extending for the full length of the ground floor. Here and on the walling above is a mixture of patches of red and yellow bricks. At the centre of the outshut is a round-arched bay surrounding a panelled door. To the right is a two-light casement with cambered head, and to the left are two further relieving arches, one of which contains a window. The walling of the upper storeys is blank except for one central window to the second floor and appears to have been stuccoed or colourwashed at some stage.

The interior ground floor rooms have square clay tiles of 19th-century or earlier date. The central hallway gives access to a dining room with a 19th-century fire surround and to the sitting room, which has lost its fire surround. Both rooms have arched alcoves with cupboards and shelving, and the sitting room has a chair rail, though the joinery does not appear to be original. The sitting room has a plaster cornice that appears to be of 19th-century date. The closed-string staircase has stick balusters and a plain handrail. Fire surrounds on the upper floors are 19th-century cast iron. The interior appears to have undergone remodelling on the upper floors in the 19th century; the mezzanine window on the south front no longer corresponds with the alignment of the staircase, as would have been expected. The later outshut masks an original entrance door to the house that was formerly external.