Barnsley Park

A house built between 1720 and 1721, with dates recorded on rainwater heads, reputedly finished by 1731. It was built for Henry Perot, Member of Parliament for Oxford, a dilettante in the circle of the Duke of Chandos. The architect is not definitively known, though the design has been variously attributed to John Price and William Townsend, presumably working to the designs of a more capable architect such as Thomas Archer. The house was redecorated by Anthony Keck around 1780, with one room redecorated by John Nash around 1811.

An excellent example of Georgian Baroque architecture, partly provincial in some aspects (particularly the south front), but otherwise sophisticated and refined. The house is built of beautifully laid golden ashlar with leaded roofs. The plan is very compact but irregular, with a central two-storey hall that probably incorporates earlier structural elements. The house rises to three storeys, with the second floor partly treated as an attic storey, and features a balustraded parapet. Windows are glazing-bar sashes with moulded architraves; second-floor windows have cornices.

The main entrance front faces west and is nine bays wide, with a break of three bays featuring a heavy pediment set within the parapet and a heavy entablature over a giant Corinthian pilaster order. A band runs over the ground floor with tall keystone elements; the central ground-floor windows are arched. A wider sill band appears below the outer attic storey windows. The outer first-floor windows have pediments, and the central window below the pediment features an open pediment with shell. The entrance itself is understated, with simple pilaster responds to an arched head.

The south front differs considerably in character. It measures five bays across the main section flanked by single-bay end projections framed by corner piers with niches on their inner faces. Ground-floor windows are arched, with the outer ones set under bracketed cornices and featuring mask keystones. The giant pilaster order carries a full and bold entablature supporting a proper attic storey with pilasters between the windows. The outer first-floor windows have exaggerated scroll brackets.

The east front is seven bays wide, not axial with the entrance front, and features a spectacular full-height flat bow of 1:3:1 proportion. The entire composition is framed by giant Corinthian pilasters supporting shorter pilasters of the second floor. The central three windows sit within a flat panel. Ground-floor windows are arched, with the central five set under a continuous cornice with enriched scroll brackets and panelled pilasters; the outer windows have lugged architraves to semi-circular heads. There are also cornices over the second-floor windows, and a central first-floor niche.

The interior is excellent, with superb plasterwork of the highest quality, presumably executed by the Artari, Bagutti, or stuccadors of comparable standing, and attributed by Christopher Hussey to Charles Stanley. The heroic two-storey hall features a screen supporting a gallery at its east end. To the north-west is the dining-room, redecorated around 1780 by Anthony Keck with a buffet screen of fluted Corinthian columns. A ground-floor bow window room, previously the saloon, was redecorated by John Nash as a library in Egyptian (English Empire) style. The staircase lies opposite the drawing-room to the north, with back stairs behind. On the first floor, the Oak Room is panelled and features a superb fireplace with an overmantel similar to one at Hall Place, Maidenhead.

The finest feature is the plasterwork, particularly in the staircase, the two halls, and especially in the main hall, which is a splendid Baroque masterpiece. The central relief and panels with niches create an effect of great richness, enhanced by open-arched corners within the coffered cove. The ground floor displays an order of fluted composite pilasters and a magnificent marble fireplace with high relief overmantel featuring an elliptical pediment with reclining female forms in a Rococo frame—a feature remarkably advanced for 1731.

The house was built for Henry Perot, who married Martha Bourchier in 1719, niece of the future Duke of Chandos. The absence of a documented architect has given rise to multiple attributions. Similarities with Cannons and Moor Park, along with Vanbruggian overtones, have led to suggestions that the design may have been by an architect of the second rank, such as John Price (who had worked at Cannons and Moor Park) or William Townsend, working to designs by an architect of the first rank such as Archer (as at Heythrop, Oxfordshire). The presence of a statue thought to represent Sir James Thornhill in the inner hall has also prompted suggestions of his involvement as architect.

The house stands in an irregular picturesque park with mature hardwood trees. For further study, see articles by Christopher Hussey in Country Life for 2 and 9 September 1954, and A. Avray Tipping's English Homes, Period V—Volume 1 (Early Georgian, 1714–1760), published by Country Life in 1921.