Woolbeding House

SU 82 SE WOOLBEDING WOOLBEDING LANE 11/34 Woolbeding House (National Trust) 18.6.59 - I Of the H-shaped Elizabethan house built here by William Aylwin, there survive 2 chimney-breasts, one at the west end of the south front and one on the north side, some of the walling of the west range and a fire-place in the bedroom in the south west angle of the building. In 1679 the house passed to the Mill family. The present house was probably built by Sir Richard Mill Bt between 1711 and 1760 and was then of quadrangular shape with an open courtyard in the middle. In 1791 it was sold by his youngest son, the Rev Sir Charles Mill Bt, to Lord Robert Spencer, third son of the third Duke of Marlborough who occupied the house until his death in 1831. He made alterations to the house in 1791, roofing over the interior courtyard. His architect was John White of Marylebone, Surveyor to the Duke of Portland. Most of the interior decoration dates from this time. During Lord Robert Spencer's occupation of the house it became one of the principal Whig centres in England, "a kind of rural Brooks's" (Disraeli). Charles James Fox, to whom Lord Robert Spencer was so devoted that his epitaph in Woolbeding Church records that he "lived the friend of Fox", was frequently at the house. This still contains several portraits and busts of Fox. In the late C19 the east side of the house was altered by Lord Lanerton and the main staircase inserted in the centre of the house, previously the courtyard, which had been roofed over by Lord Robert Spencer. The main front faces south. 2 storeys and attic. 7 windows. 5 hipped dormers surmounted by ball finials. Coursed Hythe sandstone. Moulded stone stringcourse. Parapet. Hipped slate roof. Glazing bars intact. Chimney-breast east of the western-most window bay. The west or entrance front is half H-shaped, 5 windows and 5 dormers, the 3 centre ones similar to those on the south front, the outer ones with pediments over. Coved eaves cornice. The ground floor of the recessed centre is filled by a portico of 4 fluted Ionic columns with entablature above. In front of each of the columns is a low stone post intended to protect the columns from damage by wheels of carriages.

Listing NGR: SU8732522719