Park Cottages Salperton Park

Park Cottages, Salperton Park

This is a country house with adjoining cottages, comprising a 17th-century main range with an early 19th-century west wing and mid-to-late 19th-century cottages. The west wing was designed in 1817 by Richard Pace of Lechlade.

The 17th-century range is built of coursed squared and dressed limestone with an ashlar facade, with stone slate roofs. The west wing is ashlar, with slate, concrete tile and stone slate roofing. The west wing also has ashlar chimney stacks. The building has a rectangular plan for the main body, with successive mid-to-late 19th-century cottages adjoining at the right gable end. The early 19th-century west wing extends at right angles to the left of the 17th-century main body. A 20th-century lean-to at the gable end of the west wing is present but not of special interest.

The 17th-century range is 2½ storeys with five small gables featuring moulded coping and finials. Each gable is lit by two-light ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned casements with strings. Two-storey, five-light stone-mullioned canted bays, probably of 19th-century date, light the ground and first floors of the left and right-hand gables. A scratch sundial sits between the first and ground floor windows of the left-hand bay. Two-light stone-mullioned casements of probable 19th-century date light the first floor, while 19th-century cross-mullioned windows light the ground floor. A part-glazed 19th-century door with moulded dressed stone surround sits at the far left.

The successive 19th-century cottages to the right have triple-gabled fronts imitating the 17th-century range. The left-hand cottage has two part-glazed 19th-century doors. The successive late 19th-century cottages to the right have four half dormers, with all windows featuring two-light stone-mullioned casements lighting 19th-century extensions.

The west wing has a symmetrical entrance front with three storeys at the centre in a 1:3:1 bay arrangement under a triangular pediment with moulded corbels. A late 19th-century single-storey portico with stone balustrade was added at the front. Two-storey two-bay wings flank either side, with 19th-century additions, and an additional single-storey single-bay wing to the left. The ground floor has rusticated stonework, including that of the portico. Nineteenth-century cross windows with keystone lintels light the ground floor of the main body, some with leaded lights. The portico has a central double glazed door and paired tall single lights with horizontal glazing bars, with 19th-century heraldic glass in the upper part of each light. The first floor has twelve-pane sashes with moulded eared architraves, triple keystones and alternating triangular and segmental-headed pediments. Plain sills with moulded brackets below sit under all first floor windows. The third floor has nine-pane sashes with horns within moulded eared surrounds. A pierced parapet of geometric design with urn finials (some missing) crowns the roof.

The north front displays 19th-century Jacobean style with a two-storey porch. A heraldic shield bearing a lion and three stars sits over the entrance. A double 19th-century panelled door sits within the porch. Moulded coping and pointed finials adorn the porch gable and gables over windows either side. The roof features hipped roofs to the main body of the west wing and flanking wings. An octagonal open-sided lantern with domed leaded roof and weathervane stands towards the gable end of the 17th-century range.

Internally, the 17th-century range contains a tie beam dated and initialled 'W 1616 F' in raised lettering. The west wing's principal central room contains a pair of 18th-century style fireplaces, each with fluted Ionic columns and frieze with bellflower festoon flanking a rectangular panel with moulded putti. Dentil and egg-and-dart mouldings decorate these pieces. Fine moulded cornices appear in most upstairs rooms. Nineteenth-century heraldic glass sits over the stairs. A short length of late 18th-century to early 19th-century staircase with fine column on vase balusters survives. Numerous round-headed arches with keystones, probably of 19th-century date, link corridors throughout.