Clouds House

Clouds House, East Knoyle

Country house, now nursing home. Built 1881–91 for Percy Wyndham by the architect Philip Webb, with alterations made in the 1930s. The house is constructed of dressed limestone and ashlar with a tiled hipped roof featuring brick and ashlar stacks. It is a substantial building organised around a central two-storey hall. The north entrance range was demolished in the late 1930s, and the main entrance was relocated to the west side. Extensive service areas lie to the east, connected to the main house by long corridors. The architectural style is eclectic.

The asymmetric entrance front, facing east, is two storeys with an attic storey, spanning ten window bays. A nine-panelled door in a Gibbs surround with sidelights sits in a pilastered bay left of centre. To the left are two large sashes with eighteen panes set in semi-circular headed panels, and to the right is a group of three sashes. The right side features the half-octagonal base of a demolished bay and an eighteen-pane sash positioned above stone steps. The first floor displays a double dentil plat band on the left and centre, with twelve-pane sashes in recessed panels flanking chamfered mullioned casements in polychrome recessed arched panels that light the stairs. The right-hand bay has a Lombardi frieze with mullioned casements. The attic storey was altered in the 1930s, with former gabled three-storey bays removed and replaced by five tile-hung dormers behind a parapet.

The right return, facing the garden, has a basement floor with mullioned casements and French windows to the right with a central projecting two-bay round-arched loggia. The principal floor features six eighteen-pane sashes on either side of a central pedimented doorway that opens onto a balcony over the loggia, with a cast iron balustrade attached to octagonal pilasters. The first floor displays six twelve-pane sashes with arched panels over a Lombard frieze, and three 1930s dormers rise to the attic. The rear elevation has a truncated half-octagonal bay to the left with eighteen-pane sashes to the principal floor, two set in projecting bays, of which only one retains Webb's original attic floor. The first floor shows sashes in deeply moulded recesses, with a 1930s parapet and dormers above. The left return, a truncated entrance front, has small sashes and a single-storey extension added in the 1980s.

The interior retains the central hall, though it has been reduced in size to accommodate corridors and the large original fireplace has been removed. Carved roof trusses remain above the glazed roof. An open-well staircase rises from the hall with a panelled dado, fretwork balustrade, and a landing with a richly carved screen. The stair window features rere-arches on octagonal pilasters. The drawing room on the south side has been little altered and retains a rich plaster frieze, a geometric plaster ceiling, a classical fireplace, and fitted cupboards with geometric glazing bars. The former billiard room has a panelled fireplace with an overmantel. A south-east drawing room features a panelled ceiling and plaster frieze. Original joinery survives throughout, including window shutters and nine-panelled doors. First-floor rooms retain their fireplaces, some decorated with Delft tiles, along with panelled closets, cupboards, and plaster lozenges to gallery dados. The basements have barrel-vaulted ceilings and glazed brick walls.

Despite the 1930s alterations, Clouds House remains an important work by Philip Webb. During the Wyndhams' occupation, it became associated with an intellectual group known as The Souls and was visited by notable political and artistic figures including Balfour and Burne-Jones. The house, which cost £80,000, was completed in 1886. Following a fire in 1889, a major rebuilding took place in 1889–91 at a further cost of £35,000.