Thenford House

Thenford House is a country house built between 1761 and 1765 for Michael Woodhull. It is constructed in ironstone ashlar with limestone dressings, a stone slate roof, and stone stacks.

The house follows a double pile plan with detached wings linked to the centre by short walls that screen service courtyards. The principal block is two storeys with an attic and basement, seven bays wide. The three central bays project forward under a pediment, with a string course at first floor level and chamfered quoins emphasising the angles. The entrance is positioned centrally, approached by steps with stone balustrade. The doorcase features Tuscan columns, a metope frieze with pediment, and 8-panel double doors. All windows are 12-pane sashes. The ground floor windows have moulded stone frames, while the three central windows on the first floor have bracketed pediments and blind balustrading beneath the sills. Windows in the outer bays have straight entablatures on brackets. A bracketed cornice runs around the block, with a Rococo cartouche in the pediment surmounted by the Woodhull crest. Four flat-headed dormers with sashes project from the roof, and an octagonal cupola rises at the centre between two hipped roofs. The side walls feature shaped gables with stacks at their apex.

The side wings, formerly used as kitchen and laundry, are each two storeys and eight bays wide with a pediment, flanked by one-storey outer bays with lean-to roofs forming a half pediment. A central sash window is flanked by 8-pane sashes in plain frames and 12-pane sash windows in the outer bays, with smaller sash windows on the first floor. Trompe d'oeil roundels appear in the pediments, with four sash windows in the left wing also featuring trompe d'oeil effects. Stone mullioned windows are found at the rear. Service wings are flanked on either side by walls containing 8 bays of blind arcading, with the inner walls linking to the principal block. The rear elevation features a two-storey canted bay window at each end and flanking red brick walls screening the service courtyards.

The interior contains a hall and saloon on the central axis. The hall has a stone fireplace with double volutes and an entablature with modillion cornice, the ceiling also featuring a similar modillion cornice. The saloon on the south front has a carved wooden fireplace with a frieze of flowers and a tablet of rocaille work, whilst the ceiling displays a frieze of acanthus scrolls. Doorways throughout feature moulded frames with friezes of leaves and flowers and 6-panel doors. Three windows in the wall opposite the fireplace have carved frames with consoles. The drawing room contains a carved wooden fireplace with crossed torch and quiver of arrows motifs, and the ceiling features a frieze of scrolls and flowers. The dining room retains a finely carved 18th-century wooden fireplace with a frieze of musical instruments and relief of allegorical figures seated on clouds, though the plasterwork dates to the 19th century. An open-well staircase to the right of the hall has two turned balusters to each tread with carved tread ends. At the foot of the staircase is a basement containing a Roman tessellated pavement, removed from a site north east of the village. The main bedroom has a carved wooden fireplace and ceiling with a border of Rococo scrolls and flowers, with doorcases featuring Chinese fretwork friezes. Other bedrooms contain enriched doorcases. Attic rooms incorporate re-used 17th-century panelling.

The park, with its landscaped lake, dates to the 18th century. No architect is formally recorded for Thenford House. Some features are more typical of late 17th-century work, and it is thought the house may have been designed by Michael Woodhull himself assisted by a local architect. The old manor house formerly stood near the church. Michael Woodhull succeeded to the property in 1754 at the age of 14, later becoming well known as a collector of early printed books and as a published poet.