Buckland House

Buckland House

Country house built around 1757 for Sir Robert Throckmorton by the architect John Wood the Younger. The building underwent significant alterations and additions around 1910 by Romaine Walker. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar with rusticated limestone detailing, Welsh slate and lead roof, and limestone ashlar chimney stacks.

The original design consisted of a main house flanked by low wings terminating in octagonal pavilions. Large side wings were added around 1910. The main block is two storeys with an attic storey, arranged in five bays with a 1:3:1 fenestration pattern. The central section features a giant order of Corinthian capitals supporting a pediment. The basement is finished in ashlar with wedged and keyed lintels above the sash windows. The ground floor has chamfered rustication, and a circa 1910 porch with a keyed semi-circular arch over four-panelled double-leaf doors with a fanlight and balustraded parapet.

The first-floor sashes are set within pedimented Corinthian aedicules mounted on consoles. Floating cornices and Corinthian columns frame the windows of the central bay. The broad frieze carries garlands and putti decoration. Attic storey windows are two-light openings beneath an Ionic modillioned cornice. The roof is hipped with a prominent ridge stack and lesser internal stacks.

The low nine-bay side wings added in the early twentieth century feature French windows alternating with blind round-headed alcoves, topped by a balustraded parapet. These wings connect the main block to outer octagonal pavilions. Each pavilion has a pedimented front bay with paired Doric pilasters framing a Venetian window with Doric pilasters; the side walls have semi-circular arches over sashes. Low balustrades link the main block to the pavilions and to steps fronting the right pavilion. Two-storey blocks with attic storeys, each measuring three by five bays, flank the central block to left and right, built around 1910 in matching style and materials. The tympanum of the central projection and rear bays carries a carved heraldic crest.

Interior features include an entrance hall of circa 1910 with coupled Roman Ionic pilasters and garlanded panels above each of six-panelled doors. The saloon, dating from circa 1757, lies behind the hall and features consoles supporting floating cornices above six-panelled doors, a modillioned cornice, and fine plaster coving with modillions and swags beneath a painted ceiling depicting Reni's Aurora. A large chimney piece anchors the room. Adjacent rooms retain a late eighteenth-century coloured marble fireplace and garlanded frieze with rococo plasterwork. A circa 1910 staircase occupies its original position to the rear left of the hall.

The east pavilion, possibly a chapel, features Doric pilasters framing the passage entrance, Corinthian angle pilasters, modillioned cornice and a garlanded frieze with strapwork. Alternating pedimented Corinthian aedicules and semi-circular arches with coffered reveals project from the walls. A head of Apollo with radiating rays ornaments the fireplace.

The west pavilion is fitted with scagliola Corinthian columns, a late eighteenth-century fireplace, and a frieze with putti and modillions beneath a painted ceiling by Cupicani and Rebecca depicting various Arts and Sciences.

First floor rooms feature semi-circular arches with coffered reveals and mid-eighteenth-century fireplaces. The principal rooms on the right side have more elaborate fireplaces and plaster friezes. Corinthian capitals ornament the Venetian windows in the side walls. The flanking blocks of circa 1910 incorporate Queen Anne style rooms with bolection moulded panelling to the left and a painted ceiling in the panelled room to the right. Bathrooms with inlaid marble walls occupy both floors on the right side.