New Inn Farmhouse With Outbuildings Behind

NEW INN FARMHOUSE WITH OUTBUILDINGS BEHIND, STOWE

A former coaching inn, now farmhouse, built in 1717–19 with early 19th-century alterations. It is attributed to Thomas Harris of Cublington, foreman for Sir John Vanbrugh who coordinated the early building work at Stowe, and was built for Lord Cobham.

The front elevation features chequered brick with a moulded brick cornice and stringcourse, set beneath a hipped tiled roof with ridge chimneystacks at each end. The building comprises 2 storeys and an attic range, with a single-storey range of outbuildings behind.

The front elevation displays 5 bays with early 19th-century sash windows, tripartite to the central bays. The ground floor and upper centre openings have brick cambered arches. Two hipped dormers contain 3-light leaded casements. A central carriage opening divides the front. The rear elevation to the courtyard matches its appearance in an 1809 drawing by J.C. Nattes, with advanced bays to each end featuring hipped roofs. To the left, a canted bay window with sashes overlooks the courtyard.

The outbuildings comprise a brewhouse with ridge and end stacks and timber-framing to the gable end, a dairy, a stable constructed of coursed ironstone, and a coach house with timber-framing, brick infill and brick work (dilapidated with roof collapse as of November 2003). A service bell system operates within the outbuildings.

Internally, the farmhouse has entrances to each wing beneath the carriage entrance, accessed through 6-panel doors with overlights into a corridor. The left wing contains a stick baluster staircase. The right wing contains a rear room with a bay window to the courtyard, featuring an arched recess, an ogee gothic arched cupboard, reeded chair rails, and early 19th-century chimneypieces. The right end contains a boxed-in stair. Throughout the building are 4-panel and 6-panel doors with architeraves. The farmhouse retains heavy oak roof structure. The outbuildings include a heavy open fireplace in the stable range, a fireplace in the brewhouse, and low brick arches in the dairy.

New Inn was built as part of Viscount Cobham's campaign to enlarge the mansion at Stowe and develop the extensive landscape, which was laid out by Charles Bridgeman with garden buildings by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is probably the first inn built for visitors to a house and garden, and was frequently described throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in visitors' letters and journals. In the 1860s, when the garden closed to the public, New Inn became a farmhouse.

The building holds group value with the Grade I Registered Stowe Park and the numerous listed buildings on the grounds, many of which are Grade I.