Westbrook House

Westbrook House

A country house in its own grounds on Church Street, Upwey. The building is partly of 1620, built for Sir Thomas Freke, and was substantially modified and extended between 1740 and 1750 by William Freke or by John Floyer, the new owner from 1741. Further alterations were made around 1806 when NC Daniel acquired the property. The house is constructed of Portland ashlar with some rubble walling, and has slate roofs.

The original L-plan house, which featured a central hall and projecting porch to the west, was enclosed by new blocks added to the south and east, with a matching unit to the west to create a symmetrical south front. The principal staircase opens from the northeast corner of the early hall. The building is generally arranged over two storeys with attics, with no cellar recorded. A block to the north, difficult to interpret, may be part of the early 19th-century work.

The east front, facing the river, is built in fine ashlar across three bays, featuring 12-pane sashes in plat band surrounds on stone sills. There are two flat-roofed small-pane 2-light casement dormers above the outer bays. The central entrance has a 6-panel fielded door with a radial fanlight set within a moulded arch with keystone and responds to pilasters contained in a Roman Doric entablature doorcase on half-columns. A small plinth, moulded cornice, blocking course and parapet run across the front, with the parapet returned at the ends, each containing a single 12-pane sash at each level and a matching dormer above. The south front was reorganised in 1740 as the principal facade. The central 3-bay block, in fine ashlar with rusticated quoins, projects forward over the front of the earlier hall and features three very deep 15-pane sashes at first-floor level reaching to floor level, with 12-pane sashes below and a central unit of 3 over 9-pane serving as a door. All have moulded architraves with very slender glazing bars, probably modified around 1806 by Daniel. The returns at each end have 12-pane sashes in moulded architraves, though these are blind windows. A steep hipped roof sits behind a high parapet on a moulded cornice. Set back to the left is an added wing matching the unit to the right, with a matching dormer above a 12-pane sash and a 24-pane light serving as a door. Stone stacks rise at the rear and ends of the centre block. The return to the west, continuing in rubble, features a hipped block with 12-pane sashes in plat bands facing south. To the west stands the small hipped 17th-century projecting porch, with a wave-mould stone mullioned 2-light casement above an ashlar arch with keystone and imposts—the right side cropped by later alterations—over a 6-panel door in a bold plat band surround with key.

The north front is mainly in rubble. To the left is a 2-storey hipped unit with a wide flush-panel door in the north face and a sash on the east return, linked to the back of the original hall. A partially blocked doorway is set to the south return. The 1620 building is exposed here, and in the return wing to the right is a blocked doorway with a flush chamfered 4-centred arch on dressed quoins at the north gable end; a 6-light window has been inserted under the arch. The back of the hall features a fine 8:12:8-light Palladian window set tight to the projecting east block. The wing to the right, probably part of the original L-plan, has various lights and continues to the west as a 2-storey attached cottage.

The interior contains the 17th-century hall, which stands on a Portland stone slab floor and is crowned by a fine original plastered ceiling with flowing intertwined moulded ribs and various enrichments including rosettes, dragons, crowns and thistles. The fireplace is constructed in Portland stone in an unusual Gothick design of around 1760. At the east end is a triple opening with a central arched one from the entrance lobby, flanked by doorways to the study and sitting rooms, each with moulded cornices and 18th-century fire surrounds. The drawing room contains a pair of fluted Ionic columns without entablature flanking the central doorway, a dentil cornice and white marble fire surround. The ground floor retains original window shutters to most openings and many 6-panelled 18th-century doors in moulded architraves.

Two 20th-century secondary staircases are present, but the grand mid-18th-century stair opens from the northeast corner of the old hall. This is a generous open-well quarter-landing stair in polished oak with open string to enriched panel ends. It features very slender turned balusters, three to each tread, and a moulded and wreathed handrail stopped to a bold enriched wreath, with fluted Corinthian newels. A dado with fielded panelling and anthemion cornices runs alongside. The stair is lit by an elliptical skylight with radial bars.

The lofty first-floor front room, the principal salon, features a white marble fire surround with delicately fluted pilasters and frieze with three panels carrying carved goddesses; a large tripartite rococo mirror with fine Adam detail surmounts it. This room has an anthemion cornice, while adjoining rooms have bold egg-and-dart cornices. In the small room over the 17th-century porch, the window has wave-moulded members inside. The rear extension adjoining the main staircase, accessible from the first quarter landing, formerly contained a large free-standing stack with a service stair behind, but this area has now been modified.

This is a richly appointed house, carefully maintained in the 20th century. A covered swimming pool has been added, attached to the west side of the 17th-century porch, with a lobby covering the previously exposed 17th-century doorway in the external walling.