Adlestrop Park

Adlestrop Park is a large house with a complex history, originally reputed to be a barn converted into a house in the mid-17th century by William Leigh. It was extensively remodelled in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by Theophilus Leigh. Further alterations and extensions were undertaken around 1750 and between 1759 and 1763 by Sanderson Miller for James Leigh, followed by an extension between 1796 and 1799 by James Henry Leigh. An east wing was demolished around 1950.

The house is constructed of coursed, squared and dressed limestone with a slate roof and ashlar stacks. The layout consists of a late 17th-century main body running south-west to north-east, with extensions to the rear and a 18th-century wing to the right gable end. The north-west front features an 18th-century extension breaking forward. This facade is three storeys high and symmetrical, with windows arranged in a 1:3:1 grouping, separated by strings between floors. The ground and first floors have double-chamfered, stone-mullioned windows with transoms, while the second floor has flat-chamfered stone-mullioned windows with a parapet above. Most windows have leaded panes. A central, projecting 19th- and 20th-century porch incorporates a classical door surround dating from around 1700. The doorway is flanked by detached Ionic columns supporting an open segmental pediment, with an urn and fruit decoration within the tympanum. A six-panel door sits within a moulded architrave, featuring a heraldic shield as a keystone and a lion’s head above.

The south-west front, by Sanderson Miller, presents a symmetrical facade with two-and-a-half storeys and Cotswold dormers. The central gable is lit by two- and three-light stone-mullioned casements with trefoil-headed lights and stopped hoods. A cartouche is positioned above the central three-light window. The front also includes two-storey, three-light canted bay windows, crocketed pinnacles, pointed arched niches with foliate decoration, and an engaged fretted balustrade with pinnacles over three windows at the centre. A similar window arrangement exists below, with the central window also serving as a doorway. Ground and first floor windows are sash windows with Gothic glazing within moulded, ‘Tudor’-arched surrounds. Stone panels with heraldic shields and quatrefoil motifs decorate the spaces between the ground and first-floor windows. Polygonal buttresses are found at the corners and flanking the central bay, topped by domed finials with pierced pointed arches. String courses are present above the ground floor windows and above and below the first floor windows. A stone mounting block is located adjacent to the north-west corner.

The interior includes a Jacobean staircase with heavy square balusters, a carved mid-17th-century wood fireplace with a heraldic shields and vine scroll, an original dragon frieze, and a 18th-century 'L' shaped staircase with three turned balusters per tread, simple circular decoration on tread ends, and a decorated newel. A rococo rose by Thomas Collet is featured above the stair.