Down Ampney House

Down Ampney House is a detached hall house dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. It was recorded by Leland in his "Journey through Wiltshire" of 1540–42 and was built for the Hungerford family, who held the property from 1361 until 1658. An earlier manor house had been constructed on the site around 1270. The building was significantly altered by Sir John Soane around 1799.

The house is constructed of random coursed rubble stone on a plinth with flush quoins, topped with a stone slate roof featuring an embattled front parapet, coped verges with carved animal figures, and crocketed finials to the hall. The front contains a lateral stone stack to the hall, which was formerly a round stack decorated with zig-zag work still visible in 1917 but now replaced. A stone end stack serves the solar wing to the right, with additional scattered stone stacks to the rear.

The main range is square in plan, comprising two storeys. The hall to the left contains two windows of four-light stone mullion and transoms with arched lights, originally both with two transoms and flanked by stepped buttresses. One window was cut into by Soane to form a Gothick doorway with a wide shallow trefoil-head archway, panelled pilasters, and an inner door of six panels with quatrefoils over trefoil-head panels and plain base panels. A stone traceried fanlight of wide trefoil shape contains medieval stained glass. The original entrance to the left, with a screens passage at the left end, has now been removed. A large pointed arch window appears on the left hand return.

The solar wing to the right was also altered by Soane. To the left of this wing is a tripartite sash of 4/12/4-pane sashes with a square hoodmould and grouped colonnette architrave, with a matching full-length window on the ground floor. A stepped buttress and blocked doorway appear to the right, with a 16-pane sash with square hoodmould on the first floor and full-length glazed doors below, also with square hoodmould. Internal shutters remain.

Adjoining the wall to the left is a small castellated summerhouse of three bays, probably dating from the late 19th or even 20th century, featuring pointed arch windows and doors with square hoodmoulds to the central double doors and flanking windows. The right hand return contains mostly 12-pane sashes set in slightly raised dressed quoin surrounds. The rear range displays a cornice and double blocking course with a straight joint in masonry almost in the centre. A 19th-century canted ashlar bay of two storeys projects to the left, fitted with tripartite sashes. Three large 12-pane sashes appear to the right with moulded stone architrave and dropped keystone to the first floor. The ground floor has flush stone surrounds with glazed doors to the left, a 12-pane central sash, and a tripartite full-length sash to the right. A single-storey corner range of 19th-century date adjoins this bay.

The interior of the hall measures approximately 14 metres by 7.4 metres and spans four bays, having once contained three floors. A fire in the 1970s destroyed much of the wind bracing and rafters, which have since been replaced in oak, though the main trusses survive. The roof structure features moulded principals, ridge beam and purlins, two tiers of arched wind bracing, and a plain upper tier. Hammer-beam construction supports a plain collar flanked by enriched queen posts and arched braces on a moulded collar beam, with moulded posts resting on hammer beams supported on curved and pierced brackets. Stone corbels carved with coats of arms support the brackets. A Tudor arched stone fireplace originally stood in the centre of the hall. A low wide archway on the north side of the hall faces Soane's door.

A gatehouse built at the same time as the house was destroyed by fire in the 1960s and completely cleared, except for a large stone carved arms of the Hungerford family, which is now displayed in the hall.