Britwell House And Attached Walls And Coach House

BRITWELL SU69SE 2/2 Britwell House and attached 18/07/63 walls and coach house (Formerly listed as Britwell House)

GV II*

Country house. Dated 1728 on rainwater head. Probably by William Townsend for Sir Edward Simeon: chapel of 1767-9 by Sir Edward Simeon. Flemish bond red brick with limestone quoins and dressings; side walls of grey brick with red brick bands and dressings. Welsh slate roof, copper roof over chapel; brick stacks. Central block linked by quadrant wings to flanking pavilions: chapel to rear left. Early Georgian style. 2 storeys and attic; 4-bay range with pedimented central bays having lunette in tympanum. Steps with urns to doorway: panelled double doors set in moulded stone architrave with carved stone brackets to moulded flat hood. Segmental-arched moulded shouldered architraves to 6-pane sashes with thick glazing bars. Moulded stone plinth course and bold cornice; raised chamfered quoins. Hipped roof; end and internal stacks. Pedimented roof- dormers in side walls. Quadrant wings have early C20 first-floors, C20 extension to left, and gauged brick flat arches over sashes and 2 panelled doors. 2-storey pavilion to right has 5-bay inner side wall and 3-bay front wall, similar arches over sashes and 2-panelled door; hipped Welsh slate roof with ridge stack. Similar pavilion to left has carriage entry with moulded brick and stone round arches. Chapel to rear left has pedimented doorway. Interior: panelled doors. Hall has keyed round-arched doorways flanking shell niche and Baroque fireplace with satyrs masks and scrolled pediment embracing a plasterwork vase of flowers, bold triglyph frieze, and pedimented Doric doorway to rear rooms which have mid C18 fireplaces. Fine cantilevered dog-leg staircase to right of hall has twisted balusters. Corinthian newel posts and panelled dado with Corinthian pilasters. Dog-leg stairs to left have turned balusters. Panelled room of c.1767-9 connects to chapel; panelled dado, fine plasterwork panels over pedimented doorcases and round-headed niche, coupled Corinthian columns to fine modillioned cornice and magnificent plaster ceiling "with acanthus scrolls, garlands, urns and cherubs supporting a chalice" (Pevsner). First floor has panelled rooms, and landing with fine plaster cornice leading to T-shaped panelled room with Ionic pilasters and round-headed, pedimented and segmental-pedimented doorcases. Subsidiary features: flanking walls to front with brick piers to plank double doors attached on left to early C19 brick coachhouse with 3 round-arched doorways and C20 pantile roof surmounted by bell cupola. The Simeons were a Catholic family: the poor Clares of Aire in Artois, fled the French Revolution and stayed here from 1789 to 1813. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, pp.486-7; 6. Jackson-Stops, "Britwell Salome, Oxfordshire", Country Life, 1972, pp.810-814, 883-887; V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.VIII, p.44).

Listing NGR: SU6677792455