Ardington House

Ardington House is a gentry house dating to around 1720, probably designed by Thomas Strong Junior of Oxford for Edward Clarke. Built in the Baroque style, it is constructed of grey brick with red brick dressings on an ashlar stone plinth, with a complex slate roof featuring lead ridges and brick end and ridge stacks.

The main front is a 3-storey, 7-window range arranged in a 2:3:2 pattern. The centrepiece is dominated by a segmental-headed 6-panel door with a stone architrave surround incorporating keystones and a rusticated outer surround. To the left and right of the door are segmental-headed 12-pane sashes with segmental brick heads and brick keystones. The outer bays on each side contain two 12-pane sashes with flat brick arches and brick keystones. A flat brick band separates the ground and first floors.

The first floor has three segmental-headed 12-pane sashes to the centre three bays, each with segmental brick heads featuring brick keystones and aprons. The outer bays contain two 12-pane sashes with flat brick arches and keystones. Another flat brick band divides this floor from the second floor, which mirrors the fenestration pattern of the first floor: three segmental-headed 12-pane sashes with segmental brick heads and aprons to the centre, and two sashes with flat brick arches to each side. The building is capped by a plain stone cornice at the base of a plain parapet, with a pediment covering the central three bays. A mid-19th-century armorial cartouche decorates this pediment.

The rear elevation has identical fenestration to the front, except that the ground floor centre has a glazed door, and mid-19th-century wood 2-light windows with wood mullions and transoms replace some original openings, featuring flat brick arches and keystones. A mid-19th-century wood loggia with Doric columns spans the ground floor centre three bays.

The left return elevation is a 3-storey, 3-window range. A 6-panel door with a plain fanlight and round-arched surround incorporating keystone and impost blocks occupies the ground floor. Round-topped 12-pane sashes with round-arched surrounds featuring keystones and impost blocks appear on the ground and first floors, with the ground floor left sash shortened; those to the first floor have shaped brick aprons. Flat brick bands separate each floor. The second floor contains three round windows with keystones.

The interior contains significant features from different periods. The hall features mid-19th-century wood panelling with shell-topped niches flanked by paired Ionic pilasters on each side. An early-19th-century Imperial staircase rises in two flights to a half-landing, then returns in a single flight to the first floor, with a balustrade of barley-sugar twist balusters. The first floor landing is lined with mid-19th-century wood panelling in Baroque style. The dining room to the ground floor rear retains what is probably early-18th-century Bolection moulded panelling with some later alterations; its ceiling is early-19th-century plasterwork featuring garlands of vines with a central shaped moulding.

A subsidiary kitchen pavilion was added in 1961 by Hugh Vaux and is not considered of special architectural interest.

Historically, the house was built by Thomas Strong for Edward Clarke. In 1833, the estate was purchased by Robert Vernon, who made a fortune supplying horses to the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars and later presented a collection of paintings to the nation. The house was bought by Lord Wantage of Lockinge in 1861.