Leighton House

This country house was built around 1800 for Thomas Henry Hele Phipps (his initials appear with this date on a rainwater head at the rear). Significant extensions and alterations were made in the later 19th century, mainly undertaken for William Henry Laverton around 1888–90 by Frank (later Sir Frank) Wills of Bristol. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar with stone stacks. Originally it consisted of a south-facing rectangular building on plan with a basement. Later additions include an extension to the east and a conservatory to the west, both aligned with the south elevation of the original building, and several extensions to the north. These additions use the same stone as the original house, with extensive use of stained glass throughout.

Exterior

The south front presents the original symmetrical five-bay, three-storey building in a restrained Classical style, extended eastward by a two-bay late 19th-century addition of matching height. The fenestration and details of this extension precisely match the earlier building. The rusticated ground floor is defined by a plat band, with a dentil cornice above, topped by an astragal and blocking course.

The entrance is centred on the original building, announced by a projecting Roman Doric tetrastyle porch. Late 19th-century stained glass panels now fill the spaces between the columns, depicting figurative representations of the arts, science, winter and spring, with roundels representing the chase above. The entrance opening contains panelled double doors, their upper panels now glazed. Above the porch is a window flanked by two narrow lights. The ground-floor windows are nearly full-length, reducing to square windows on the second floor. Ground-floor windows have lintels with heavy keystones, while those on the upper floors are without enrichment. All openings contain horned sash frames.

The east wing, added in 1888, was originally two storeys but was raised to match the height of the main house soon afterwards. On the east elevation, this wing features a single-storey rectangular bay window. To the west of the main building stands the conservatory, also dating from 1888, which has four bays on each side. Above the southern arched doorway to the east is a keyed oculus. The three window openings are defined by Tuscan pilasters resting on a podium, and the lantern rises above the parapet.

To the north of the main building is another 1888 extension containing the billiard room. This single-storey structure has a tripartite bow window on its north elevation. The ground-floor rustication continues through to this wing, which is markedly Baroque in its detailing, with a continuous eared moulding to the heads of the openings broken by keystones and pilasters. The western bay of the north elevation has a double-height rectangular bay window of the same date with matching details, the rustication continuing to the pilasters separating the lights on the first floor. The ground floor of this extension and the bay window are obscured to the west by a single-storey 20th-century ashlar extension resting on the podium of an earlier glazed structure. The eastern bay of the main building on this elevation has a bay window balancing that to the west.

To the rear of the east wing is a further two-storey extension completed in 1890. In the north elevation of this extension, a central projecting stack bears the Laverton coat of arms, while a doorway to the east of the elevation has the family's arms in the tympanum. This doorway gives access to a glazed walkway running along the east side of the extension and the north side of the eastern wing. The walkway is lit by an arcade of stained glass windows with glazed spandrels, paired rectangular windows above, and larger rectangular windows forming a clerestory. The first floor has a similar passageway with rectangular windows. On the eastern elevation of this range, the ground-floor windows have stone mullions and segmental-arched lintels with keystones. To the north is a ground-floor rectangular bay window. Rainwater heads on the extensions are emblazoned with the Laverton arms.

Interior

The original part of the house retains some features from around 1800, but the interior was extensively redecorated in the late 19th century, with the majority of this work contemporary with the major building projects of around 1888–1890. The decoration from this phase is largely designed to complement the late Georgian manner of the original building.

The entrance opens onto a wide central hall divided by a two-column screen. An open-well staircase rises beyond with an ornate cast-iron balustrade. The entrance has a fluted frame internally containing shutters, and around the hall runs a ram's head frieze.

Opening off the hall to the south-west is the library, with dark wood fittings of late 19th or early 20th-century date. The bookcases and chimneypiece are loosely Jacobean in style, while the room retains a palm-leaf frieze with rosette cornice thought to date from around 1800.

The north-west room on the ground floor of the original building has a tall reeded skirting board found elsewhere on the ground floor, dado panelling with moulded panels above, a classical frieze and rosette cornice, and a ceiling centred on a large roundel with foliate swags and scrolls. The white marble chimneypiece, thought to be part of the original scheme, has a foliate frieze. The wide rectangular bay window added to the north end of the room around 1888 is now blocked to the north, with a single light remaining to the west.

The north-eastern part of the original building contains the dining room, extended to the north end by another rectangular bay window. In the centre of the south wall is an arched buffet recess framed by enriched Corinthian pilasters; this feature pre-dates the 1888 redecoration of the room. The later plasterwork ceiling is in the Jacobean style with broad ribs in geometric patterns, the interstices filled with formalised foliage and flowers. The panelled mahogany doors have pedimented overdoors. The chimneypiece is of black marble in an elaborate design, with Ionic columns to the jambs, lions' heads above, and arches separated by brackets to the frieze.

The south-east portion of the original building is subdivided and contains the service stair. To the east of the main building, the extension contains a drawing room on the ground floor with an elaborate cornice and a chimneypiece of veined black marble.

The north-west extension contains two rooms, the northernmost being subdivided. The walkway, glazed on one side, runs along the western side of this extension and links it with the original building. The pediments over the doors in the passageway carry the date 1890. The arched windows contain stained glass, some decorated with urns and foliage, some with birds, and some in a Mannerist style with masks and strapwork. The floor is mosaic. (Similar glass can be seen in nearby Westbury House, now the town's library, which was formerly home to the Lavertons.)

On the first floor, arches with panelled soffits lead right and left to the bedrooms, with the large central bedroom accessed immediately from the landing. The stained glass with stylised swags and acanthus leaves remains visible in the rear north-east passage. The bedrooms on the upper floors are largely without original features; several rooms have been subdivided and fireplaces removed.

The basement lies beneath the building of around 1800 and extends beneath the eastern wing. It appears largely to conform to its original layout and retains several features such as cast-iron columns to the eastern entrance corridor, stone shelving, wine bins, a small stone chimneypiece, and some flagstones, though the range has been removed.

To the west of the original building is the conservatory, entered by a door at the south end of the south-western room as well as by the external south door. The windows have arched glazing bars with stained glass in the spandrels. The glazed roof rises to a lantern with stained glass detail; stained glass also fills the oculus above the south door. The eastern part of the conservatory takes the form of an arcade, where the pilasters and plinths that define the other walls are spanned by stone arches with keystones. The floor is of mosaic in a simple geometrical design.