Ashcombe House

ST 92 SW BERWICK ST. JOHN -

5/41 Ashcombe House

GV II

Country house. Early C18, altered C19 and 1930s. English bond brick, tiled hipped roof, brick stacks. L-plan, the truncated remains of a larger house. 2-storey, 4-window. 1930s Gibbs surround with scrolled pediment to doorway, to right is one 9-pane sash with decorative leading and to left are 2 sashes with decorative leading; all are segmental-headed with keystones. First floor has four similar 9-pane sashes. Moulded stone cornice and blocking course with limestone coping. Right return has two 6-pane sashes to ground floor. Left return has lean-to extension to ground floor and 9-pane sashes to first floor. Rear, garden front has three 9-pane sashes with segmental heads and keystones, French windows, first floor has 1930s 18-pane sash lighting stairs and two 9-pane sashes. Interior not accessible at time of survey (March 1985), but said to have Chinese Chippendale stairs, most of fittings are probably C20. A large house built on this site by Barber family in late C17, altered by them and subsequently partly demolished in mid C18 by Sir Walter Grove; present small house is a survival of the eastern wing. Occupied by the society photographer, Cecil Beaton, between 1930 and 1947, when the house was renovated. (C. Beaton, Ashcombe-The Story of a Fifteen Year Lease, 1949 (illustrated); N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England; Wiltshire, 1975; Early C18 painting in Salisbury Museum.)

Listing NGR: ST9337520110