Williamstrip Park

Williamstrip Park is a large country house dating to about 1700, with extensive alterations in 1791 by John Soane for Michael Hicks Beach, further alterations in 1834 including a west portico, and an enlargement in 1865 by David Brandon for M.E. Hicks Beach. The house is constructed of ashlar limestone with ashlar chimneys and a Welsh slate roof. It has a large square central stairhall plan and stands three storeys high with a cellar.

The west front has a nine-window arrangement, with all sashes. The ground floor windows feature plate glass, the middle floor windows have 12 panes, and the upper floor windows have six or nine panes. The outer three sashes are arranged in shallow bows, and the central three windows are set beneath a small pediment. Chamfered quoins alternate. Plain floor level bands run along the front, and the parapet is plain, topped with ball finials. The roof is hipped. A short, two-storey wing projects to the left, featuring two windows with 12-pane sashes, continuing the plain banding from the main elevation.

The south front has a seven-window arrangement, with sashes matching those on the west front. Two single-storey canted bay windows with oval openwork parapet decoration were added as part of Brandon’s alterations. The east front likely retains more fabric dating to about 1700, as indicated by contemporary quoin strips to the corners and a central projection. It has a fenestration pattern of 2:3:2. A central doorway has a glazed door and a flat cornice hood supported on scrolled brackets. The emphasized central middle floor sash window is surrounded by moulded architraves. Above, an upper floor Diocletian window is set below a central pediment. Plain floor level bands and a parapet with ball finials are present. The original parapet line is visible above the upper floor level band, and this line has been repeated on the later elevations.

Inside, most features date to the 1865 alterations, although Soane’s library was removed in 1946. The central stairhall has an open well staircase with two barleysugar balusters per tread. A room in the southeast corner includes a fine late 18th-century fireplace with carved figures depicted playing musical instruments. A curved garden screen wall, dating to 1865, is attached at the southwest corner and features oval openwork at the top. A north wing, also part of the 1865 alterations, was demolished in 1946. The property includes fountain pools to the south and a game house to the north.