Main And Subsidiary Blocks At Tylney Hall

Tylney Hall is a grand country house in a landscaped park, built in stages between 1879 and 1904. The original house was designed by Edward Birchall in 1879. It was then greatly extended by R. Selden Wornum for the patron Lionel Phillips between 1899 and 1901, and extended again by Robert Weir Schultz for the same patron between 1901 and 1904.

The main residence is constructed of red brick with Bath stone dressings and some brick diapering, with plain tiled roofs. It rises to two storeys with attics throughout.

The entrance front presents an E-shaped plan with a short projecting gabled porch at the centre. Six flat-headed dormers occupy the centre section, with additional dormers to the wings. Various tall chimneys in the Elizabethan style are positioned on or behind the ridges. The fenestration is irregular, featuring mullioned and transomed windows of varying sizes with different numbers of iron-framed casements.

The central block includes a wide single-storey canted bay to the left and a two-storey projection from a shallow, gabled two-and-a-half-storey wing in the re-entrant angle to the right. The central projecting porch rises two-and-a-half storeys with a Flemish-type gable and stone coping with a decorative finial. The entrance features a triumphal arch motif with coupled Doric half-columns on the ground floor, carrying a full entablature with coupled Ionic half-columns on the first floor and a full entablature above. A stone surround to the attic window has strapwork cresting. A mullioned and transomed first-floor window sits above a round-arched entrance with a decorative keystone and doubled doors. The return wing projecting to the left has irregular fenestration and two canted bays with stone inset lozenge-decorated parapets. A ballroom wing projects to the right, linked by a low one-storey block with a central gable over the doorway. Three shallow two-storey bays reach up into the parapet, with stone dressings and ball finials on the parapet. Transom and mullion windows on three sides of each bay reach almost into the parapet.

The north-west elevation shows the ballroom block to the left with a similar treatment to the court elevation, except for a red brick tower at the left-hand corner with a stone cornice and ogee lead roof. A low central block contains an open stone loggia of two bays with round arches on columns and open strapwork parapet, enclosing a spiral staircase with filigree traceried balustrade, segmental arched openings and an entrance leading to a gallery over the fireplace in the ballroom. At the right end of the main block are two large canted two-storey bays with embossed pilaster orders, decorated entablatures and lozenge-decorated parapets. Two lunette gables surmount the parapet with stone lozenge decoration and decorative finials.

The south-west elevation features five hipped dormers behind the parapet and various moulded brick chimneys in the Elizabethan style. Four projecting gabled bays of two-and-a-half storeys each—one at each end and two linked in the centre—rise from this elevation. All have lunette gables except the projection to the right of centre, which has a gabled roof with kneelers. Large stone-dressed and pilaster-flanked mullioned and transomed windows occupy the left-hand gabled projections. Between them is a three-bay Quattrocento-style Ionic arcaded loggia on the ground floor. A deep canted bay with transomed and mullioned windows on both floors occupies the projection to the right of centre. A projecting one-storey conservatory with a pilastered stone frame and large mullioned and transomed windows projects between the gabled projections to the right.

To the south-east is a kitchen courtyard of single-storey red brick in a more utilitarian style, hidden on the garden side by low Dutch-gabled blocks and a garden wall with a brick and timber pergola against the west face.

The stable courtyard lies further to the south-east. Its blocks rise two storeys but appear single-storey on their exterior show-facade to the east, which conceals a basement. The entrance features a central double Doric columned round arch with a kneelered gable and a clock under a stone hood above. The courtyard side of the arch matches this treatment. Curving stone walls ramped up to the entrance are flanked by low corniced piers with ball finials. Two large half-timbered gables flank the entrance, each with two small louvres with concave pyramidal interiors, plus one over the entrance and one to the left of the left-hand gable. All timber gutters are treated as moulded eaves cornices. A courtyard gallery runs around the first floor with a wooden balustrade on stone Tuscan columns. The block opposite the entrance rises one-and-a-half storeys with diapered brickwork and a central Dutch-gabled projection. Concave gables rise over a single semi-dormer to the left and two to the right. This block links to a tower at the right, dominating the garden side of the service block. The tower is of red brick with black brick diapering and irregular fenestration. A recessed paired colonnade on the top storey has segment-headed windows behind it. A deep stone modillioned cornice supports a decorative mansard roof with a tall cupola. A square buttressed stack stands at the north-east corner. The garden-side entrance is through a moulded stone archway, accessed by a flight of stairs.

A laundry courtyard of even more utilitarian red brick lies further to the south-east, with a gabled and half-timbered entranceway.

Internally, a staircase in early 17th-century Jacobean style features a strapwork balustrade and decorated newel-posts, with the landing above carried on triple Doric columns. Later 17th-century-style wood panelling appears throughout. The drawing room is panelled in later 17th-century style with carved drops and a compartmentalised plaster ceiling. The music room features Rococo-style boiseries and a coved plaster ceiling with rocaille work. Many other rooms are decorated in a variety of 17th and 18th-century styles. A panelled room at the top of the eastern tower probably served as a smoking room.