Courteenhall House And Attached Offices

COURTEENHALL HOUSE AND ATTACHED OFFICES

A country house built between 1791 and 1793 by Samuel Saxon for Sir William Wake, 9th baronet. The building is constructed of local limestone ashlar with Weldon stone dressings, featuring a hipped slate roof and brick lateral and ridge stacks. It follows a modified double-pile plan and displays Neo-classical styling.

The main house comprises three storeys and a basement. The five-bay entrance front is the principal elevation, with a central part-glazed double-leaf door approached by five stone steps with a moulded wood surround and overlight. The doorway is flanked by three-quarter Tuscan columns and narrow eight-pane sash windows. Above the door sits a blank panel with a plain frieze either side, topped by a dentilled cornice. The door and side windows are set within a shallow segmental-headed recess. Twelve-pane sash windows to the ground floor occupy similar recesses with moulded stone surrounds on brackets bearing paterae. The first floor holds matching sashes with flat-arched heads. Six-pane sashes light the basement and attic floors. A Weldon stone plinth runs across the front. The central bays project forward, with ground-floor arches linked by cornice moulding and plain frieze moulding to the piers. A first-floor sill band and dentilled stone eaves cornice with blocking cornice complete the composition. Low stone plinths flanking the entrance steps bear cast-iron standard lamps with circular globes and finials.

The seven-bay garden front employs a similar treatment of sash windows. Those on the ground floor of the three-bay centre are flanked by Ionic columns with plain frieze and dentilled cornice, all set within segmental-headed recesses. The centre breaks forward and carries a low pediment with an oeil-de-boeuf window. The left side elevation displays five bays with comparable sash windows and a central part-glazed door to the library. This door has a pedimented stone surround and is approached by a low double-armed stone staircase with an elliptical-arched window below the landing fitted with a cast-iron grille. The central three bays project forward with a pediment. The right side elevation features flat-arched sash windows, those at either end being blank, with a central single-storey link corridor connecting to the offices and kitchen court.

The attached offices form ranges of one storey and attic height with hipped slate roofs, surrounding three sides of a courtyard. The fourth side is enclosed by single-storey segmental arms flanking the carriage-way. The offices include a former kitchen and laundry. A square louvred cupola crowns the range facing the garden, topped with a gilded ball finial and weathervane. The main office range displays very deep bracketed eaves to the courtyard and six-pane sash windows.

The interior contains several richly decorated rooms. The hall features chequered stone paving with black diamond insets and a three-bay column screen at its inner end, composed of Roman Doric columns. A plaster frieze with garlanded paterae runs above. The Dining Room is furnished with a plaster frieze displaying vine garlands and panels adorned with playing cherubs in low relief. A column screen at the inner end wall holds Corinthian columns, with a central sideboard recess within the screen finished with an elliptical-arched head and plasterwork fan motif. The Library possesses a segmental apse at the inner end wall containing two curved niches, each with a pair of fluted columns bearing capitals based on those of the Tower of the Winds in Athens. Above the entablature are open lunettes and scalloped coves. Fitted bookshelves line the walls, with plaster panels above and a plaster anthemion frieze completing the decoration. The Staircase Hall contains a stone cantilever open-well staircase with a simple iron balustrade featuring anthemion motifs and a mahogany ramped and wreathed handrail. The walls are original marbled work beneath a glazed oval dome. A spinal two-storey corridor extends to the first floor with a similar glazed oval dome and internal sash windows that light the attic corridors. Round-arched recesses frame doors to the principal bedrooms on either side.

The property is the seat of the Wakes. The accompanying landscaped park, designed by Repton, is registered at Grade II in the Historic Monuments Commission Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.