Park House

Park House is a house built between 1876 and 1877 as part of a railway village designed by I.K. Brunel to house workers for the Great Western Railway works. The village, constructed between 1842 and the 1850s, comprises twelve terraces in six blocks on either side of a central street. The houses and cottages were built in phases, with the western cottages completed between 1842 and 1843, followed by those on the east side between 1845 and 1847. Subsequent construction occurred between 1853 and 1855. The village represents one of Britain’s best-preserved and most ambitious railway settlements.

Park House is built of yellow brick with stone dressings, featuring a slate roof and three storeys plus a basement. The original three-bay facade was extended by a further bay to the right. Gable stacks are present. The entrance is within a single-storey forebuilding with an iron balustrade supported by corbels. The front door is a pair of three-panel fielded doors, topped with a fanlight in a two-centred head. Flanking the entrance are two-storey and basement bay windows, the left one canted. A pointed segmental-headed opening leads to a balcony above the porch. The second floor features two- and three-light windows with stone mullions and two-pane sashes. The house underwent extensive renovations in August 1984.