Bridwell Park

Bridwell Park is a country house built between 1776 and 1780 for Richard Hall Clarke, who may have had a hand in its design. The architect remains unknown. It sits within a landscaped park and is constructed of plastered brick with hipped slate roofs.

The building follows a deep rectangular double-depth plan with a central entrance hall and rear stairwell, and includes one probably contemporary rear wing. It rises three storeys, with a modillion cornice parapet and plat bands running between floors around the whole building.

The front elevation is symmetrical, with a 2:1:2 bay arrangement. The central bay projects slightly forward, and the modillion cornice breaks forward and rises into an open pedimented gable. This central bay contains Venetian windows to the first and second floors, fitted with horned sashes. The main entrance is a porch with clustered pilasters at the angles that break through the cornice to form the merlons of the parapet. A round-headed doorway with keystone is set below, flanked by single lancet windows and furnished with a panelled door topped by a semi-circular barred fanlight. The side bays have 12-pane horned sashes to all floors.

The left-hand elevation displays six bays, with the first bay from the front being blind. Small 12-pane sash windows light the second floor, while taller 12-pane sash windows serve the ground and first floors. The right-hand elevation has three bays; the front bay is blind, with 12-pane sashes to the first floor and 6-pane sashes to the second. The rear elevation shows asymmetrical fenestration, mostly 12-pane horned sashes, with a Venetian window lighting the stairwell. Two large chimney stacks with modillioned cornices sit behind the roof ridge; these were replaced by replicas in 1985.

The interior preserves exceptional decorative schemes. The oval entrance hall features an inner door panelled with a semi-circular barred fanlight, flanked by unusual glazed squinches. A plaster cornice encircles the room beneath a ceiling with a solid white plaster central ornament radiating from a central boss, the ribs decorated with pineapple motifs at each end. The ceiling has a blue background with sand-coloured walls that appear faithful to the original colour scheme. Panelled doorways with reveals lead to adjacent rooms.

The drawing room retains original internal shutters, dado, skirting and doorway mouldings. Its ceiling is of unusual and high quality workmanship, featuring a central roundel fringed with arcs balanced by drapery swags curving in opposite directions, with fronds extending into panels containing musical instruments, bordered by urns and leaf swirls. The chimneypiece displays a white marble cornice and architrave with a frieze of blue john set with a panel of Cotham stone. Round-headed recesses flank the fireplace on either side.

The parlour similarly retains original fixtures. Its ceiling features a central foliated roundel within an outer circle divided into 16 sections containing urns and swags, with zig-zag and arc-shaped fronds to the margin and a cornice of guilloche. A Gothick chimneypiece with an ogee head in fossil marble outlined in black faces an oval pier glass surmounted by the Clarke crest.

The dining room is treated more simply, with two panelled ceiling beams, moulded cornice, and alcoves at either end. This room may well be of later date. The stairhall contains well stairs with simple balusters and a turned rail beneath a plaster cornice. A wide shallow arch supported by fluted pilasters opens at the stair head, with similar arches giving access from the landing to the first floor corridors and plainly decorated bedrooms. Second floor rooms, now largely re-ordered, are reached by rear stairs fitted with stick balusters.

Bridwell Park is a fine country house that retains much of its exquisite internal decoration.