Burton Closes

Burton Closes is a country house, now a residential home, in Bakewell. It was built in three principal phases and represents a significant example of 19th-century architectural development.

The earliest phase dates to circa 1845–48, when a summer villa was built for John Allcard, a banker and stockbroker. The design was by Joseph Paxton and John Robertson, with interior fittings by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, executed by JG Crace, Minton, Hardman and George Myers. The second phase followed circa 1856–58, when extensions were added for William Allcard, a railway engineer, designed by TD Barry of Liverpool and Edward Welby Pugin. A third phase of additions came in 1888 for Smith Taylor-Whitehead, designed by JB Mitchel-Withers.

The house is constructed of deeply-coursed tooled sandstone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs with rolled-lead ridges. When completed, it formed a U-shaped plan around an entrance courtyard. The north range was demolished in 1949 and replaced by a new building in 1972 by Robert Quie Associates.

The central block of 1845–48 is aligned north-south in Tudor Gothic style. It has two storeys with partial attics, a single-storey former conservatory, deeply-moulded plinths, a continuous first-floor string course, and tall octagonal paired chimneys throughout. The plan comprises a central two-storey entrance hall with stairs to the right, principal rooms to the rear, and services to the left; originally there were only two main bedrooms.

The entrance front (west) is symmetrical with three bays. The centre projects and has a stepped 1:3:1-light window to the first floor, a coped gable and octagonal pinnacles. A one-storey porch features studded doors in a Tudor-arched surround with a hoodmould and castellated parapet with pinnacles. The outer bays contain two 2-light windows beneath stepped 3-light windows that rise into dormers with coped gables and metal finials. Hoodmoulds appear throughout.

The garden front (east) is asymmetrical with four bays. Two gabled wings flank the composition: one has a stepped 3-light window over a canted bay, the other a canted oriel over a 3-light window. All windows are mullioned with transoms except the oriel. They feature coped gables with pinnacles and apex finials. The left return (south) mirrors bay three of the garden front.

The interior of the central block is notably ornate. The entrance hall is conceived in the late medieval spirit, with a panel-vaulted ceiling bearing stencilled patterning by Crace and a 5-light window with patterned glass by Hardman. A screen with gallery and linenfold panelling, part glazed with trefoiled lights, further enriches the space. The stair hall to the right contains an open-well staircase with poppy-head finials on octagonal newels, octagonal balusters, and richly carved panelling to the dado and string.

The dining room has a crenellated fireplace bearing a motto and John Allcard's initials, a panelled dado and ceiling with stencilled decoration of morally uplifting texts, and transom lights with monograms. The drawing room features two ornate doorways with original brass door furniture and pierced cresting, a wall mirror in a carved and crested surround, and an 11x5-panel ceiling with repeated stencilled design (some panels later painted over). Patterned glass appears in the transom lights. The present office retains crested library shelving and a panelled ceiling. Numerous original features survive elsewhere.

The second phase wing, built circa 1856–58, is in Perpendicular Gothic Revival style. A vaulted passage links it to the 1840s drawing room and to a room with a polychromatic fireplace bearing initials 'W.A.', oak motifs and birds in a vine trail, plus diagonal ceiling panels with repeated stencilled design. The former billiard room also retains its original fireplace and panelled ceiling.

The second phase wing itself, to the south, is a markedly asymmetrical five-bay elevation dominated by an octagonal turret (the spirelet since removed) with traceried upper panels, the topmost panels pierced. Single-light windows occupy the first floor, with a garden entrance below. To the left are one gabled and two hipped bays with an oriel and a storeyed bay window respectively. A recessed bay connects to the south return of the earlier range. The courtyard elevation is treated in a more restrained fashion to harmonise with the earlier work.

The conservatory, originally to the west of the central block, was removed during the second phase extension and re-assembled to the west of the new range. It comprises eight bays, each with a 20th-century casement, panelled pilaster buttresses, and a crenellated cornice.

The third phase additions of 1888 to the east garden front (north of the 1840s range) are in plain Renaissance style. They feature paired cross-windows, buttresses with gablets rising to the middle of the first floor, and a gabled roof dormer. The south bay angles towards the 1840s range, with a more elaborate dormer adorned with grotesques and flying buttresses. A gateway to the courtyard has large piers with stopped chamfers and castellated tops; one wing wall carries a small bellcote on the courtyard side.

Historically, John Allcard occupied the house with his unmarried daughter until his death in 1856. The estate then passed to his son William, a railway engineer, who had eleven children. William occupied the extended house for only three years before his death in 1858, when it passed to his son William Henry Allcard, a barrister. The family lost its wealth in the stock market crash of 11 May 1866, known as 'Black Friday', and the house finally left the family in 1871.

The house is starred because the early work, although now incomplete, presents what has been described as a "virtual epitome of early Victorian visual taste" set in grounds landscaped by Paxton. The later ranges are handled very sensitively and create a complex 19th-century house of considerable distinction.