Wittington

Wittington

A former mansion on Henley Road in Medmenham, built in 1898 and enlarged in 1909, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield for Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, Lord Devonport, founder of International Stores. A Latin inscription on the frieze records these dates. The building was in the process of conversion to offices at the time of survey in 1985 and was undergoing extensive restoration and redecoration.

The house is constructed of red brick with Ham stone dressings and is executed in the William and Mary style. It features a moulded wooden eaves cornice with modillions, a hipped roof of Westmorland slate, brick chimneys with stone caps, and stone keyblocks and imposts to arched recessed panels.

The plan comprises two storeys, an attic and cellars. The north front contains eleven bays arranged in a shallow E-plan with two bay flanking wings and a slightly advanced three bay centrepiece. The façade has chamfered stone quoins, a flush plinth band and a raised first floor band course. Windows throughout are three pane sashes with gauged brick heads and keystones; those on the first floor have stone aprons. The wings and centrepiece aprons are decorated with carved fruit festoons. Pedimented dormers contain paired leaded casements.

The centrepiece takes the form of a blind pedimented portico with attached Ionic pilasters and entablature. The sashes within the portico have shouldered architrave surrounds with keyblocks. The central four-pane sash and door feature similar surrounds with husk drops; the door itself has an open segmental pediment containing an elaborate shield bearing the Devonport cipher and festoons, with a lunette in the pediment above. A central octagonal wooden cupola with leaded lights, domed copper roof and wooden ball finial crowns this composition.

Attached to the right end of the house is a brick screen wall with a pair of gate piers, which masks a single storey service wing. This wing contains six bays of tripartite sashes, a central louvred turret with an ogee lead roof, and a pair of gate piers at its far end.

The south front facing the garden has nine bays with sashes and dressings similar to those of the north front. The pedimented centrepiece features three first floor sashes with voussoirs and festooned aprons, above an inset loggia with four Ionic columns. A round window in the pediment has a carved foliage surround with drops. Flanking bays have two storey canted bay windows, with outer bays set back.

The east front displays two external chimneys with knapped flint and stone chequers. The west front is notable for a fine stone doorcase with banded rustication, Ionic columns, an open segmental pediment and scrolls flanking a sash window above.

Interior details include rooms in Jacobethan style, notably the long ground floor room in the east wing and the south-west ground floor room with bay window. Both are panelled and contain richly carved wooden overmantels to their fireplaces. The south-west room additionally features Jacobethan plasterwork with foliage scrolls and grotesques to the frieze and beam soffits. Other rooms display 18th century-style panelling and bolection moulded fireplaces. The hall features a central screen of two Ionic columns, pedimented doorcases and two oval windows in festoon surrounds. An open-well staircase with turned balusters completes the interior.