Britwell House And Attached Walls And Coach House

Britwell House is a country house dating to 1728, likely designed by William Townsend for Sir Edward Simeon. A chapel was added between 1767 and 1769, again by Sir Edward Simeon. The main building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with limestone quoins and dressings. The side walls are grey brick with red brick bands and dressings. It has a Welsh slate roof, a copper roof over the chapel, and brick stacks. The architectural style is Early Georgian, consisting of a central block linked by quadrant wings to flanking pavilions, with a chapel situated to the rear left.

The main block is two storeys and an attic, featuring a four-bay range with a pediment over the central bays, incorporating a lunette in the tympanum. Steps leading to the front door are flanked by urns, with panelled double doors set in a moulded stone architrave, accented by carved stone brackets supporting a flat, moulded hood. Segmental-arched, moulded, shouldered architraves frame six-pane sash windows with thick glazing bars. A moulded stone plinth course and a bold cornice run along the building, with raised, chamfered quoins. The roof is hipped, with end and internal stacks. Dormer windows, pedimented and with hipped roofs, are visible in the side walls. The quadrant wings have early 20th-century first-floor additions and a 20th-century extension to the left, exhibiting gauged brick flat arches over sash windows and panelled doors. The two-storey pavilion on the right has a five-bay inner side wall and a three-bay front wall, also featuring segmental arches over sashes and a two-panelled door, topped by a hipped Welsh slate roof with a ridge stack. The pavilion on the left features a carriage entry with moulded brick and stone round arches. The chapel has a pedimented doorway.

Inside, panelled doors are a consistent feature. The hall contains keyed round-arched doorways, a shell niche, and a Baroque fireplace with satyr masks, scrolled pediments embracing a plasterwork vase of flowers, a triglyph frieze, and a pedimented Doric doorway leading to rear rooms, which themselves have mid-18th century fireplaces. A fine cantilevered dog-leg staircase is located to the right of the hall, with twisted balusters, Corinthian newel posts, and a panelled dado with Corinthian pilasters. A separate dog-leg staircase with turned balusters is on the left side. A panelled room dating from approximately 1767-9 connects to the chapel, featuring a panelled dado, fine plasterwork panels above pedimented doorcases, a round-headed niche, coupled Corinthian columns supporting a modillioned cornice, and a magnificent plaster ceiling decorated with acanthus scrolls, garlands, urns and cherubs supporting a chalice. The first floor contains panelled rooms, and a landing with a fine plaster cornice leads to a T-shaped panelled room with Ionic pilasters and round-headed, pedimented, and segmental-pedimented doorcases.

The property is surrounded by front walls constructed of brick with brick piers and plank double doors attached to an early 19th-century brick coach house, featuring three round-arched doorways and a 20th-century pantile roof surmounted by a bell cupola. Britwell House was historically the home of the Simeons, a Catholic family who were Poor Clares of Aire in Artois and fled the French Revolution, residing there from 1789 to 1813.