Dyrham House

Dyrham House is a country house with origins in the Tudor period, rebuilt for William Blathwayt in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The west front, designed by Samuel Hauduroy, was completed by 1694. The east front, designed by William Talman, was completed by 1703. The house was refenestrated around 1800, with alterations and additions made to the south elevation in the mid-19th century. Construction is of limestone ashlar with coursed rubble at the north and south elevations, under slate and lead roofs.

West Front

The west front comprises a central block with projecting wings. The central block contains, from south to north, a 19th-century kitchen, the great hall, and the dining room (originally a parlour and arched closet, enlarged in the 19th century). The east front extends beyond the central block to both north and south.

The west front is of two storeys with a 3:9:3 window arrangement. Three bays on each side are set forward. All windows are sashes in moulded architraves with cills. The central round-headed door has double pilasters to each side, with large capitals serving as imposts for the door head and supporting brackets beneath the first-floor balcony. This balcony originally extended across the central window only but was widened to three windows in the same style between 1845 and 1860, when two additional pilasters were added to each side of the door along with two more brackets. A balustrade with four dies, each with a raised panel, surmounts the door. The door features Gothic intersecting glazing bars in the upper section, a heavy foliate keystone, and carving in the spandrels in the style of Grinling Gibbons. The central first-floor window has a floating cornice and a Horatian inscription reading "his utere mecum".

The central block has a moulded plinth, a moulded string course at first-floor level, a heavy cornice, and long-and-short quoins with V-joints. A balustrade with dies runs along the roofline, topped with fluted urns with ball finials (early 19th century) — two to each side and two in the centre. The central wider plinth has a raised panel and scrolled carving to the sides, with small outer pilasters surmounted by a lead figure of Mercury.

Each wing has three bays containing three round-headed sashes with splayed glazing bars in flat architraves. The cill string course continues from the main block. Three six-pane sashes are positioned at basement level. Between the windows are plain pilasters with capitals in the string course, continued above the string. Three blind oval recesses with flat architraves sit above. A plain cornice and parapet divided into three sections by pilasters caps each wing, with two rectangular raised panels in each section.

Pavilions below terrace level terminate each wing. The pavilion to the right is of two storeys and two windows, with all sashes matching the main elevation. The ground floor north side has a round-headed opening with a six-panelled door and long-and-short rusticated voussoirs. Features include a moulded plinth, long-and-short rusticated V-jointed quoins, and the string course from the main elevation continued as a cornice. The parapet has oval recesses as on the wings and a balustrade matching the main elevation. The pavilion to the left is half the width of the other pavilion, with the same inner elevation but only one window wide to the west. The first floor is blind, and the ground floor, which formerly had a circular window, is now also blocked.

East Front

The east front is of two storeys and attic, arranged 3:7:3 windows including two shallow projecting wings. All windows are fifteen-pane sashes in moulded architraves, with attic windows of six panes. The ground floor has banded rustication of the French type. The central doorway has Doric columns and double panelled doors, with the upper panel featuring a carved festoon. All ground-floor windows have acanthus-carved brackets to cills and lintels. The central window of the outer three bays has scrolled brackets to the lintel and a raised panel on the apron. A band course runs above.

At first-floor level, the central twenty-pane sash has a balustrade and Ionic semi-pilasters to each side, with scrolled brackets supporting a pediment with a draped urn above to each side. Of the three bays to each side, the central windows have segmental pediments and the rest have floating cornices. The outer windows have balustrades — the mason mistook the architect's intention and placed two balustrades under the wrong windows. Of the three outer bays, the central window has a pediment on brackets and a balustrade, while the others have floating cornices.

The attic storey has a central eight-pane sash and central window of the outer bays in eared and shouldered architraves. In the centre seven bays, festoons alternate with the segmental pediments below. In the outer three bays, panels below the outer windows are carved with strapwork. Quoins of even length run the height of the elevation. A richly carved cornice, parapet and balustrade with draped fluted urns cap the front. A central pedestal with a raised panel bears the inscription "virtute et veritate". A segmental pediment surmounted by a large eagle — the Blathwayt crest, carved by John Harvey of Bath — crowns the composition.

To the right, a screen wall rises to first-floor height to balance the effect of the Orangery. It has two round-headed arches with rusticated voussoirs and heavy vermiculated keystones, divided by paired pilasters with paired pilasters to the left. To the right, a pavilion broken forward has paired engaged Doric columns, a pulvinated frieze, cornice, and parapet with paired pilasters over the ground-floor pilasters and columns. A balustrade with similar urns completes the composition.

South Elevation

The south elevation shows the division between Hauduroy's work to the west and Talman's to the east. Between the two, at basement level, a single-storey 19th-century kitchen block has three sixteen-pane sashes, cornice, parapet and balustrade. Set back, the great hall has three large twenty-eight-pane sashes (reduced in size when the kitchen was added), cornice, parapet and balustrade, and a hipped roof. Inner walls are in coursed rubble with varied windows to east and west.

To the west, long-and-short V-jointed rusticated quoins separate the house from the stable block, with balustrade and urn as at the west elevation. To the east are flush quoins, rusticated only at the top storey, with the cornice returned and quoins remaining; a former plan was infilled in the 19th century. The south elevation above the Orangery has two six-pane sashes in moulded architraves with a raised panel below each, and cornice and balustrade above with an urn to right and left as at the east elevation.

North Elevation

The north elevation has a single-storey block behind the screen wall with one nine-pane sash. Behind this, an elevation of three storeys and two windows has a cornice, balustrade and urn to each corner, and straight rusticated quoins to right and left. The central block in rubble is of two storeys and seven windows, set back, all fifteen-pane sashes. The third from the left at ground floor has doors inserted below the sash. At first floor, three bays to the right have a sash and two blind windows. The north elevation of the north-west wing has two flat-headed windows with hood moulds, both blocked, possibly surviving from the earlier building.

Interior

The walnut stair to the west was designed by Hauduroy, with woodwork carried out by Robert Barker of London. It is of cantilever construction in an enclosed square rising to first-floor level. The walnut was imported from Virginia. Panelling was grained to match, and only the treads and risers remain unpainted.

The cedar staircase to the east was designed by William Talman and completed after 1702. It rises to the full height of the building and is of cantilever construction. Risers, balusters and carved brackets are of cedar from America, with treads of Virginian walnut.

The east hall (formerly called the vestibule) has original stamped leather hangings, gilded, painted and embossed with cherubs, flowers and fruit, installed in 1702. The original chimneypiece of red and white Languedoc marble is now in the Balcony Room, replaced by a 19th-century Italian chimneypiece.

The Balcony Room was the central room of the 1692-4 additions. Panelling of architectural character features Ionic pilasters raised on tall plinths and superimposed pilasters to either side of the fireplace, with foliage around the centre window. The joinery dates to around 1693 by Robert Barker. Brass locks and hinges on the doors are pierced and engraved with scrolling, tulips, daffodils, roses and strawberries, probably made by John Wilkes of Birmingham.

Dyrham House and Dyrham Park are the property of The National Trust.