Barrington Park

Barrington Park

Palladian country house built 1736–8 for Charles Talbot, Lord Chancellor to George II. Reputedly designed by William Kent but more probably designed and built by Francis Smith of Warwick. Extended in keeping 1870–3 by Edward Rhys Wingfield, with architects William Burn, J. McV Anderson and H. L. Anderson.

The building is constructed of ashlar with a stone slate roof and ashlar stacks. It comprises a rectangular plan to the 18th-century main body with late 19th-century extensions at each gable end. Two storeys with a rusticated basement, the 19th-century porch added to the entrance front.

The entrance front is treated as 3:3:3 windows, with the 18th-century portion forming three wide bays at the centre. Basement windows sit under each ground floor window: 15-pane sashes with moulded architraves, triangular pediments, pulvinated friezes and console brackets to the outer bays of the 18th-century main body. The 19th-century extensions have two-pane sashes with moulded architraves and entablatures with consoles. The 18th-century main body is articulated by four pairs of giant Corinthian pilasters, surmounted by an entablature with a modillion cornice and triangular pediment over the central bay. Balustraded parapets flank either side of the pediment, with a similar parapet at a slightly lower level to the 19th-century extensions. A central 19th-century projecting single-storey flat-roofed porch has a banded plinth, three round-headed archways with keystones and a balustraded parapet. The original front door survives within the porch in a tripartite Venetian arrangement.

The south front features a rusticated basement beneath a piano nobile. It is windowed 3:5:3 with canted bays extending to first-floor height on the 19th-century extensions. Basement levels of these bays are lit by 4-pane sashes, whilst the basement of the 18th-century main body is lit by 9-pane sashes. The piano nobile and upper floor have two-pane sashes with valances. Ground floor windows to the 18th-century main body have alternate segmental and triangular pediments; all other windows have lugged architraves. Five giant Corinthian pilasters divide the bays of the central block, which has an entablature with a modillion cornice and triangular pediment over the central three bays. A stone balustrade flanks either side of the pediment and at a slightly lower level to the 19th-century extensions, sweeping up as a parapet over the former gable ends of the 18th-century range. The 19th-century extensions have hipped roofs. Gable-end and lateral stacks have moulded cappings.

The interior is reported to be relatively unaltered. The entrance hall features rich plasterwork and eight elaborately carved pedimented door frames. The Hall, Drawing Room and Tapestry Room have ceilings attributed to Bagutti. The Tapestry Room contains groups of musical instruments over the doorways and a frieze decorated with realistic shells above the tapestries made for the room. The chimney piece in this room is contemporary; that in the Drawing Room is late 18th-century with Wedgwood plaques. The 19th-century extensions provided a billiard room, dining room and boudoir, as well as a new staircase and additional bedrooms and staff quarters. The boudoir, designed in the style of Adam, is reputed to be among the best examples of Victorian pastiche plasterwork.