Walhampton House Walhampton School

Walhampton House, now part of Walhampton School, is a medium-sized country house dating primarily to the early 18th century, with significant alterations and additions in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1884, N Shaw substantially enlarged the property, adding a Queen Anne style block. The original section was remodelled in 1911 by T Mawson. The building is constructed of orange/red brick in the earlier sections, plum brick in the 19th-century range, with stone dressings and old plain tile roofs.

The building plan is of 2½ storeys (with an attic concealed behind a parapet), featuring projecting wings of five bays on one side, full-height canted bays on the other, and a narrower bay connecting to the two--storey, six-bay Shaw block, set forward two bays from the link. The arrangement creates a facade that aligns with the other side of the house. 20th-century additions have been made in a style sympathetic to the 18th century.

The entrance front has a brick plinth with moulded brick offset, and a three-bay wide stone platform with a bowed front, accessed by three steps. A large stone doorcase with a segmental pediment sits centrally, rising above the first-floor string. The windows are thin 18-pane flush-frame sashes on moulded stone sills, set within rubbed arches with raised keys running up to the heavy moulded first-floor string, which incorporates quoins and lead downpipes. Similar sashes are on the first floor, with stone tops that join the second-floor stone cornice. A panelled parapet with narrow panels under rubbed arches and a stone coping completes the facade. Raised brick quoins and lead downpipes are located either side of the central three bays and on the sides of the wings. The roof is hipped, with shorter hipped roofs for the wings. Dormers with two lights and flat roofs are located above the centre bays and on the hips of the wings. Stacks run along the front of the ridge, in line with the inner faces of the wings. Shaw’s range is described as being in a stiff and rather dull Queen Anne style.

The interior of the older part was remodelled in 1911 to create a hall with hung oak panelling and plasterwork in an 18th-century style. A long saloon with a marble fireplace featuring Corinthian columns and a ceiling, possibly dating to the 18th century, is located behind the front section. To the right (from the front) of an end wing is a room with an Oriental-style ceiling and a red 19th-century porphyry fireplace. Behind this is a music room with an Italian stuccoist's ceiling, with niches leading to a 20th-century ballroom, now used as a chapel.