The Wilderness

The Wilderness is a house that was originally the kitchen and offices of a much larger house built around 1700 by the First Marquess of Wharton. This larger house was largely demolished by the 2nd Duke of Marlborough in the mid-18th century. The structure includes parts from the 17th century, mainly from around 1700, and has been altered over time. It is constructed of brick on rubblestone plinths and has an old tile roof, with the south wing made of rubblestone.

The house is two storeys high with dormers and consists of six bays. The northeast front features French doors in the right bay, while the left bay has a gabled section with a blocked carriage arch that has a rubbed brick basket arch, complete with a keystone and impost stones. There is a band course above the arch and a gable band above a sash window. The ground floor has four sash windows, and the first floor has six sash windows. There are also two hipped two-light dormers and five stacks with offset heads.

The south wing includes a two-light ground floor casement and another bay, also in rubblestone, which has a casement and a dormer facing southwest. The north gable is made of modern brick and has two sashes. The southwest front features mainly modern sashes and has a four-window-wide central projecting modern block with a hipped roof. This block includes a reused six-panel door with panelled reveals and a cut bracket cornice hood on the northwest side. The main house has two two-light hipped dormers, and there is a 17th-century stack at the angle between the house and the south bays, which has a stone lower part and a brick upper part.