Bedgebury Park, stable courts and garden terraces

Bedgebury Park, stable courts and garden terraces

This country house, now a school, has a core dating from 1688 with 18th-century stables. It was substantially altered around 1838 by architect Alexander Roos, and again in 1854–1855 by R C Carpenter, with further work by William Slater. The building was originally constructed in red brick but is now clad and extended in sandstone ashlar with a slate roof, whilst the red brick stable wing retains its slate roof.

The plain, pedimented red brick block was given an Italianate shell around 1838 and was transformed by French-style roofs around 1855. The house follows a large shallow H-plan on its entrance front, presenting three storeys with two attic storeys, projecting wings of three bays each, and a shallow projecting centrepiece of three bays. The façade spans thirteen window bays in total. Cornice bands mark each floor, and a modillion eaves cornice with urn finials supports the Mansard roof, which features a central belvedere. The upper row of dormers has roundels set in scrolled, segmentally pedimented surrounds, whilst the lower row comprises sashes with segmental heads and scrolled surrounds. Five sets of irregularly placed stacks rise from the roofline. Glazing bar sashes appear throughout all floors; on the upper floors they are flanked by pilasters, on the first floor the central pavilion windows have pediments and the three central windows have cornices, whilst other windows feature bracketed cornices.

A projecting three-bay porch projects from the centre, with Ionic pilasters supporting a cornice and parapet. The three arched openings have semi-circular fanlights with panelled double doors flanked by casements (originally open). The ground floor is fronted by a balustrade on a low base.

The garden elevation is disposed identically, except for the absence of the porch and the pavilion wings being canted forward with Venetian windows on the ground floor and large tripartite sashed dormers.

Attached to the south-west of the main block by a pierced parapeted ashlar link-piece are the stable courts. The older ranges are two storeys of red brick with stone plat bands, glazing bar sashes and wooden casements, and infilled coach house openings with gauged segmental heads. Slater added an ashlared bell tower and building with a leaded two-stage spire and clock faces inscribed "Pereunt et Imputant". The outer courts are defined by quadrant walls with urn-finalled gate piers, all in sandstone ashlar.

The garden terraces comprise an outer terrace approximately fifty metres by fifty metres, with a balustrade set between regular pedestals carrying urn finials and flights of steps and entrances on each side. Two flights of steps lead to the upper terrace with similar balustrading, and a final balustraded perron sits above the house basement area, with a flagstone terrace and balustrade featuring cast iron torch-bearers at the finials, supported by sphinxes at their bases.

Interior features include mid-18th-century decoration in the Dining Room with maple wood panelling, enriched pedimented door surrounds, a large chimneypiece in the style of William Kent, and a Rococo plaster ceiling with crossed swords at the centre. The Library has Ionic pilastered bookcases with enriched frieze and cornice, a fireplace with enriched and pedimented overmantel containing a painting, neo-Classical pedimented window heads with pier glasses, and a palmette and anthemion frieze to the ceiling. The stair hall features a cast open-well stair with cast iron balusters, a ramped and wreathed rail, enriched string, and Corinthian columned screens to the landings, with a plaster ceiling in Adam style. The entrance hall has a marble floor, Ionic screen, pedimented doorcases, and a 19th-century Rococo marble fireplace, decorated with rectangular and round neo-Classical reliefs after Thorwaldsen and an Intarsia ceiling of 1865 made in the estate workshops. A chapel was constructed around 1930 from the former Laundrey in the clock tower building, with all wood fittings—lectern, reading desk, chairs, benches, reredos and panels—executed as a cohesive piece to high quality and dated 1830–1835. The original chapel in the house is now used as offices, retaining a doorcase with an inset cross.

The house was originally altered for Marshal Viscount Beresford, whose architect Alexander Roos was said to be Italian and a member of the Accademia di San Luca. Beresford's stepson and heir, Alexander Beresford Hope, had the French pavilion roof and stable spire added and the neo-Classical stair and entrance halls created. Although otherwise a noted champion of the Gothic Revival and the Cambridge Camden Society and Ecclesiology, Beresford Hope appears to have indulged tastes inherited from his natural father, the great Grecophile Thomas Hope.

Bedgebury was the centre of ancient and large estates first recorded in 1814 as the seat of the Bedgebury family, later the Culpeper family. The new parish of Kilndown was created by and for the Beresfords at Bedgebury. The house has been run as a girls' school by the Church Education Corporation since 1920.