Wicken Park

Wicken Park is a country house, now used as a school. It likely has origins in the 16th century, with substantial development in the early 18th century. Wings were added and altered by Thomas Prowse, and a further storey and other changes were made in the 19th century. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, with a hipped slate roof and brick internal stacks. It is three storeys high with 2-storey wings, and has a ten-window front on the north side. The plan is of a double-depth configuration.

The north front, which serves as the present entrance front, features a 19th-century porch to the left of centre, and sash windows with flat-arched heads. The three bays flanking the two-bay central section project slightly. The two-storey wings have canted projections and three twelve-pane sash windows to both the ground and first floors, all with flat arched heads. A plinth and first floor storey band are visible. The south, garden front has a nine-window arrangement; the wings have two windows to this side on both ground and first floors. All the windows are sash windows with flat-arched heads. The west side elevation has three bays, the central bay projecting slightly, with a 19th-century office wing to the east.

The interior includes a two-storey staircase hall with a reset mid-18th-century staircase rising to a gallery landing. The staircase has slim turned balusters and carved ends to the treads. A plaster cornice with modillions is also present. Other rooms in the west wing feature dentil and guilloche pattern plaster cornices, one with a reeded plaster cornice and a moulded six-panel door. Fielded panelling is found in rooms at either end of the south front; one room has a bolection-moulded fireplace, and the other a blocked corner fireplace.

Wicken Park was formerly one of the lodges of the Whittlewood Forest and was sold in 1716 to Charles Hosier, who enlarged it. The house passed to the Prowse family through the marriage of Thomas Prowse of Axbridge, Somerset, to Elizabeth Sharp, daughter of Anna Maria Hosier. The Prowse family remained there until 1860, when the property was sold to Colonel the Hon. George Sholto Douglas-Pennent, later Baron Penrhyn, who enlarged the house and also expanded and restored the nearby church. The Penrhyn family lived at Wicken Park until 1944 when the estate was sold.