Dower House

Dower House is a country house, now used as a hospital, dating to approximately 1760. It may incorporate elements of a 16th-century manor house, and was altered around 1800. The design is attributed to James Paty, possibly following designs by Thomas Wright of Durham. The house is constructed with roughcast rendering and features coped and battlemented parapets. It has an H-shaped plan.

The south elevation has three storeys and five windows in the centre, with three windows in each wing, which terminate in canted bays. The windows have been altered, and are now primarily glazing bar sash windows. A glazed colonnade with pierced battlements projects from the ground floor between the wings. Plat and cill bands run between the ground and first floors. The west return elevation has six plain, altered bays, with the central three set back; the ground floor retains three original glazing bar sashes. The east return elevation displays seven plain bays, all with glazing bar sashes, keystones, plat and cill bands, and battlements. The north (entrance) elevation is similar to the south, but includes a Gothic porch added around 1800, bearing the Berkeley motto 'Mihi Vobisque', and two 20th-century fire escapes.

Internally, three rooms retain plasterwork attributed to Thomas Stocking. An east corner room features a screen of Doric columns, with an entablature incorporating masks, ox-skulls, and trophies. The ceiling displays a central feature of four Bacchanalian figures, surrounded by a band crossed with roses, a motif elaborated further with an elaborate flower basket. The central eastern room, formerly a music room, has a delicate ceiling depicting a violin, pipes of Pan, and a recorder. The south octagonal room contains a complete suite of moulded and fielded panelled doors with eared architraves, shutters, reveals, and a bolection moulded fireplace with floral swags. A large, cantilevered open-well staircase has a heavily moulded handrail and thin turned balusters, complemented by early 19th-century plasterwork featuring a Greek key roundel. The house was built for Norborne Berkeley and subsequently passed to the Beauforts, serving as the dower house to Badminton until 1907.