The Pediment Including Boundary Walls, Gate And Gate Piers, Terrace With Urns And Flanking Pedestals, Parterre With Sundial, Temple, Stone Pillar With Statue, And Pond.

THE PEDIMENT INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALLS, GATE AND GATE PIERS, TERRACE WITH URNS AND FLANKING PEDESTALS, PARTERRE WITH SUNDIAL, TEMPLE, STONE PILLAR WITH STATUE, AND POND

The Pediment is a Classical Georgian house set within a two-acre plot. The main building has a square plan, flanked on its north side by attached diagonally sloping screen walls. A wide driveway runs along the north side, while the south side features a landscaped garden.

The house is constructed from large blocks of ashlared Bath stone, finely jointed, beneath a roof clad in Welsh Purple Bangor slate. The gardens and subsidiary buildings incorporate six different varieties of stone: Bath, York, Blue Hornton, Portland, Clipsham and Derbyshire Tufa.

The Pediment comprises two storeys and three bays under a low pitched roof that forms a full width pediment behind a low parapet on both north and south elevations. The entrance façade to the north has a central square-headed entrance with a four-panelled door and over-light with geometric glazing bars. The outer bays are lit at ground and first-floor level by square-headed six over six pane sash windows with timber glazing bars. The window above the entrance is blind. The pediment features an inset oculus and ball finials in York stone at its outer edges. The garden front is almost identical except the door is pierced by four glazed ovals in its top half. The east elevation has sash windows in each bay on both floors. The west elevation is similar, except the first bay at first-floor level contains a blind window, and the middle bay features a tall semicircular window lighting the staircase. On either side of the north elevation are ramped walls of rubble stone capped with slate that screen the garden from the road. On the east side, these walls conceal an open loggia with four timber segmental arches.

The interior is characterised by a simple plan with a room in each corner on both floors, and thoughtful use of building materials. The entrance hall leads through an arched opening to a slate-paved central hall, giving access to a dog leg staircase with turned balusters, moulded handrail with square caps, and a dado with horizontal panelling. Window and door surrounds in the principal rooms have panelled soffits and jambs. The study has a parquet floor. The floors in the drawing and dining room were originally laid in cross-sawn Oregon pine, though this has not been verified as carpet now covers them. The drawing room features a moulded, lugged fireplace in Corsham Bathstone with an overmantel consisting of a panel with moulded cornice, flanked by scrolls. The panel bears an inscription carved by David Kindersley reading "THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DWELLING IS IN THE DWELLER". The dining room contains a much plainer stone fireplace with a chamfered opening and simple timber lintel supported by three brackets. The study is enlivened by a large ogee arched niche. The partition between the study and hall is timber panelling in the Georgian manner rather than solid wall.

The two-acre plot is surrounded by dry stone walls with saddle-back coping. On the north side, timber entrance gates are set between piers of Bath stone, square on plan, with capitals of Blue Hornton stone. On the south front, the garden door leads onto a stone paved terrace with a short flight of York stone steps, flanked by a pair of urns in Clipsham stone. These are flanked by pedestals surmounted by ball finials. On the east side of the house is a rectangular parterre consisting of four corner triangles with a central circle laid out in box, surrounded by a path of Staffordshire blue bricks. In the centre stands a green travertine pillar supporting a slate sundial. In the middle of the east wall is a classical temple with four Doric columns of Portland stone, timber entablature and pediment. The handmade bricks are laid in herringbone pattern and the slate-clad roof is lined with Norfolk reeds. To the south-west of the temple is a stone pillar surmounted by an 18th-century bronze armillary sphere. Directly to the west is an octagonal pond in Portland stone, surrounded by a path of cobbles and York stone, with a pillar housing a tap on its south side. On the west side of the garden, the entrance to the stable yard is flanked by long timber posts which reproduce a motif found on the urns.