Newark Park

Newark Park is a former hunting lodge that was enlarged into a private house. Built around 1550 for Sir Nicholas Poyntz of Iron Acton, it was reputedly constructed using stone from the destroyed Kingswood Abbey. The building was enlarged in the early 17th century into an H-plan, then formed into a square and remodelled by James Wyatt in Gothick style, probably in the 1790s, for the Reverend Lewis Clutterbuck. A service wing was added in 1897. The house was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1949 and has been restored since 1970.

The exterior features incised render on scored ashlar with string courses and a moulded plinth. Stepped buttresses to the south and east support an embattled parapet added by Wyatt. The double range hipped slate roof with internal slopes in concrete tiles is surmounted by a dragon weathervane thought to date from around 1550. Large lateral stone stacks flank the north of the original east range, and a ridge stack rises at the centre of the west range.

The original structure was a rectangular block facing east with a projecting stair tower on the west side, of four storeys including a half-basement. This was formed into an H-shape with the addition of a west wing in the early 17th century. The centre was subsequently reorganised into an axial hall with semi-circular ends and axial porches by Wyatt, creating a square block. The service wing added on the north side comprises two storeys in a sympathetic style.

The east front retains its original style across three bays. The centre projects outward above a doorway in Renaissance design with small fluted columns on a tall panelled plinth, and features an entablature and pediment with a roundel. Steps lead from a garden bridge entrance down to the former basement kitchen and original servants' quarters. Both lower storeys have two-light stone mullions flanking the central bay. The second floor has two-light stone mullion and transoms flanking the central bay, with a three-light window in the centre and additional side lights above.

These two floors apparently originally comprised one large banqueting room, with garderobes and fireplaces on the north wall, mostly still surviving. A large bay window now containing late 18th-century painted glass stands on the stairs.

The south front was completely remodelled by Wyatt, featuring two twelve-pane sashes on each side of a central triple sash, all with square hoodmoulds. A central embattled canted porch with pointed arches on each face projects forward, with a panelled reveal to the central recessed half-glazed double doors with eight-pane side lights on the main wall plane. The west front also displays twelve-pane sashes.

The interior retains many original features from each period of development. The east range contains original stone moulded Tudor fireplaces revealed on three floors on the north wall, including a large kitchen fireplace. Several former external windows in similar style to the east front survive on internal walls. The west wing retains remains of a vaulted long gallery on the upper floor.

The axis between the two ranges on the ground floor is now filled by a long hall with semi-circular ends, cross columns in scagliola, and a ram's head and swag frieze running throughout. Several ground floor rooms retain plasterwork by Wyatt. A cantilevered moulded stone stair with a wreathed and ramped handrail and stick iron balustrade leads from the hall to the east bay window and back across to the west wing.

The basement servants' quarters contain one stone Tudor archway and a 18th-century brick vaulted wash room with a stone sink, bakery, laundry, and wine cellar.

The hunting lodge was built for one of Henry VIII's courtiers who married into the wealthy Berkeley family, and is important as an early attempt at the symmetry and grandeur developed in the slightly later high or prodigy houses. Its Renaissance detail in particular reflects its origins in the court circle of masons rather than in local traditional styles.