Cholderton Park House

Cholderton Park House is a country house dating to circa 1800, with alterations and extensions made before 1890. The main block is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with a hipped Welsh slate roof of a shallow pitch, featuring wide eaves overhang. Other roof areas have plain clay tiles. Brick chimney stacks are present. The house is arranged in an 'L' shape, with a south elevation of five bays. A rendered plinth is visible, and the windows are small-pane casements of eight panes each. Ground floor windows have additional four-pane toplights, all set under voussoired flat-arched heads. The centre bay of the ground floor features a stone entrance porch with two freestanding, unfluted Ionic columns supporting a plain entablature, framing a six-panel door with a plain sidelight and fanlight. The east and west ends of the main block are rendered and colourwashed. An east-facing gable features a single-storey extension with a coped gabled tiled roof, linked to the main block by a short lobby with a four-centre archway, a boarded door, and Gothic-arched and cusped panels, one displaying a shield. A glass conservatory has been added to the south side, and the east gable has a three-light stone mullioned window. The west wall has blind window panels at both floor levels. Extending northwards is a double-roof plan unit of four bays, with a steeper-pitched slate roof. The west elevation has two- and four-light casement windows under segmental arches on the first floor, while the ground floor features a nine-pane sash window and pointed-arched light stone mullioned windows of varying patterns, all without labels; a two-light window is in bay 1, four-lights in bays 2 and 4, and bay 4 contains a projection window under a tiled roof with four-lights and a two-light splay. Further north, another extension is set back on the west side; its lower storey is masked by a 20th-century glazed corridor with a flat roof, and the first floor is tile-hung with two four-light casement windows. This unit is screened by brick and flint walling, enclosing a small courtyard.

The principal rooms behind the south facade are in a late Adam style. The south-east room has an ornamental plaster ceiling, a typical doorcase, and dado moulding, along with a white marble fireplace surround featuring Ionic pilasters, urns, and a reclining figure in the overmantel. The south-west room has a cornice and plain dado, and a fine white marble fireplace surround with coloured inlays, also dating to circa 1800. The entrance hall is plain, and the staircase is a renewal or relocation from circa 1900. The rear rooms, particularly the gun room with its coved ceiling and rooflight, and the library, are high Victorian in style, incorporating Gothic elements. The roof over the south block has late 18th century collar trusses.

The house was acquired in 1885 by Henry C Stephens, M.P. (of the ink firm), who began to expand the estate to approximately 3,300 acres, covering parts of Wiltshire.