Nether Winchendon House

Nether Winchendon House

A country house of complex development spanning the 15th to early 19th centuries. The building began as a 15th-century hall with crosswing. Around 1530 a high-quality close-studded timber-framed chamber wing was added to the east, jettied to the north side. A service range followed circa 1560 to the left, returning north. The house was substantially altered between 1790 and 1805 by Scrope Bernard, and underwent restoration by Philip Tilden in the 1920s.

The house is arranged as a two-storeyed letter-L plan around a courtyard open to the east, with a screen wall crossing the north side. The south and west ranges feature cement dressings and stone parapets and buttresses. Coursed rubblestone corner towers are present, as is a rendered south-east block which conceals the timber-framed chamber wing beneath. Old tile roofs cover the structure. All elevations are topped with embattled parapets on a pointed arched corbel frieze.

The south range, originally one room deep, was doubled in 1799 with the addition of a corridor and staircase range to the north. A 5-arched screen links the north-west and north-east towers; the east arcade was subsequently demolished.

South Front: The hall section has two bays with 1802–06 Gothick arched windows of three arched lights and two transoms. To the left, a projecting gabled crosswing features a weathered arched doorway at its right, opening to the former cross-passage. Buttresses and pinnacles adorn the elevation, with a quatrefoil ornament in the gable. Further left are two bays followed by the south-west tower. To the right of the hall bays stand two widened chimney stacks, circa 1530, flanking two bays with mullioned and transomed ground floor casements. Above rises a three-bay timber balcony. The stacks feature richly moulded 16th-century brick flues decorated with spirals, chevrons and bands. A cupola behind the crosswing gable, erected in 1790, carries an ogeed octagonal lead cap.

West Elevation: Stone-faced with canted bays at each end and mullioned and transomed windows.

North Front and East Front of West Range: Three and two-light windows respectively, with hood moulds to the ground floor and arched openings to the first floor fitted with label moulds. Buttresses separate the bays. A gabled porch at the centre displays a coat of arms in the gable. The north towers feature three-light traceried blank windows on their north sides. The outer bays of the linking arcade are blocked.

East Elevation of South-East Wing: Narrow bays with two-light arched windows flank a canted bay window containing seven lights with transom. The first floor has a five-light window with arched heads. Tourelles stand at the angles; the north-east example is truncated. Additional moulded flues in this section were created by Webb of Haddenham.

Interior: The hall retains 17th-century panelling. At the north-east end stands a four-centred timber arched doorway with moulded head and jambs, and foliage spandrels framing an inscription to John Daunce (tenant in 1528), who built the chamber wing beyond. A 16th-century fireplace features a moulded frieze elaborately carved with grotesque subjects and foliage, with strapwork jambs. Above the hall rises a 1802–06 plaster rib-vault.

The justice room, occupying the former crosswing, displays 18th-century walnut panelling. The drawing room, within the circa 1530 chamber wing, is lined with original linen-fold panelling surmounted by carved oak friezes. The cross-beam soffits are similarly carved and all painted. A portrait of John Daunce is framed by his initials, profile heads, mermaids, cherubs and arabesques—likely the work of the same carver responsible for panels removed from Notley Abbey, Long Crendon, to Weston Manor, Oxfordshire, and signed by Richard Rudge. The bay window contains 16th-century armorial and 17th-century Flemish stained glass, with further examples set in other windows throughout the house. Several fine 18th-century fireplaces, probably salvaged from the demolished Eythrope House in 1810, are present.