Chilton House Including Forecourt Walls, Gates, Railings And Pavilions Clock Tower

Chilton House, including forecourt walls, gates, railings and pavilions (Clock Tower)

A country house with pavilions and cour d'honneur, dating from the 16th century and substantially enlarged and remodelled around 1740. The house is built of brick with stone basement and dressings, and features hipped tiled roofs. The main structure rises to three storeys with a basement, presenting a nine-bay front.

The original 16th-century house was of half H-plan with wings projecting to the west. Around 1740, the space between these wings was infilled and much of the remainder substantially rebuilt. The east or entrance front displays a rusticated stone basement and a central doorcase with Ionic engaged columns, an entablature and pediment, with glazed double doors approached by a double flight of twelve stone steps. Flanking pairs of bays are framed by stone Doric pilasters supporting a stone cornice above the third-floor windows. The line of these pilasters continues through a tall brick parapet, which has stone-framed recesses aligned with the windows below. All ground-floor windows and the five central first-floor windows have banded stone rusticated jambs and stepped voussoir heads, while the remainder feature stone architraves with keystones. The five centre bays project slightly.

The garden or west front is plainer, with a stone basement and sash windows with keystones set in brick jambs with segmental brick arches. The centre five bays project slightly, with their outer bays featuring arched staircase windows; the lower ones have sidelights and cornices to form Venetian windows. A stone cornice band and coped parapet complete this elevation.

Both the north and south elevations feature full-height projecting chimneys with offsets. The north elevation has two chimneys with two diagonal flues of 16th-century brick each; the western one and adjoining walls display diaper brickwork patterns. Lead rainwater pipes and hopper heads are present. The south elevation has two full-height projecting stacks, each with two square flues. Both flanks feature stone cornice bands and ramped coped parapets.

The interior is richly appointed. The entrance hall is panelled with fluted Corinthian pilasters and a modillion cornice, with a fireplace featuring an open pedimented surround with lugged architrave and a high-quality plaster centrepiece to the ceiling. The main staircase hall to the right contains a staircase with three twisted balusters per tread, carved tread ends and a moulded hand rail, with a fluted columnar newel, panelled dado and ramped rails, and dentil eaves. A secondary staircase to the left, though altered, retains upper flights with two turned balusters per tread and ramped rails.

The ground-floor front rooms are panelled: the left-hand room has pedimented overdoors and Rococo plasterwork to the ceiling, while the right-hand room is panelled with pedimented overdoors and a modillion cornice. Other ground-floor rooms are also panelled. The first floor includes rooms with 18th-century panelling and box cornices on the right, while the left-hand rooms and rear right-hand room have 17th-century panelling, possibly reused. The second floor retains a 16th-century linen-fold panelled room across the whole of the south wing, featuring a high pointed barrel ceiling, likely the long gallery of the original 16th-century house. The first floor includes a 16th-century fireplace with moulded stone jambs and a four-centred head. The cellars feature three and four-centred barrel vaults in brick, mostly 16th-century in date. The south elevation (now internal) displays a four-centred arched doorway with moulded jambs and above it a four-light window with pointed heads and a square outer order with a moulded label. A modern single-storey range of four bays with dormer windows adjoins the south elevation.

The cour d'honneur is approached through quadrant walls leading to flanking pavilions; these quadrants have been altered but each features a niche with rubbed brick dressings framed by pilasters and a pediment, followed by arched doorways and the pavilion side walls. The pavilions are of three bays by three bays with hipped old tile roofs, one storey plus dormers, built of brick on a tall stone plinth with stone cornice and panelled parapets. Each bay is flanked by brick pilasters. The elevations to the cour d'honneur have three arched recesses between pilasters with an abacus band and keyblocks. The north pavilion has casement windows in the recesses, while the east fronts feature a wider centre bay with a blocked arched centre door flanked by segmental arched windows; the outer bays have windows with roundels or niches over second windows, and three dormers. Each pavilion has a central wooden clock turret with an octagonal arched belfry crowned with an ogee cupola and weathervane. The north pavilion has a wind dial instead of a clock face and is used as stables, whilst the south pavilion is residential and called 'The Clocktower'. The north and south walls of the cour d'honneur are of brick with moulded copings and plinths ramping up to the pavilions.

The entrance screen to the east features wrought iron railings on a low brick wall with stone copings. Four piers with stone caps include outer ones with pineapple finials and inner ones with urns. Central wrought iron gates have scroll panel standards and an overthrow.

Chilton House was remodelled around 1740 for Chief Justice Carter, based on William Winde's Buckingham House of around 1705 in London.