Vaynor Park

Vaynor Park

Vaynor Park is a substantial country house built around 1740, substantially remodelled and extended between 1840 and 1853. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and a slate roof, and is planned as an E-shaped structure of two storeys with attic.

The entrance front faces west and is symmetrically planned with outer gabled wings and a central projecting porch. The outer shaped gables, which are 19th-century work, each contain a four-light stone mullioned and transomed window with pedimented surround on the ground floor, with similar windows of diminishing size on the upper floors and a pediment over the attic window. A continuous string course runs over the ground and first floors. The central range features a stone Renaissance Revival porch, added during the 1840–53 campaign, flanked by paired two-light mullioned and transomed windows. Above are five similar windows, and three shaped gabled dormers with heavy scrolled copings.

The east front is an addition of 1840–53, brought forward slightly from the original building line. It comprises three advanced shaped gables separated by narrower bays containing three-light windows on each floor. The central gable has paired windows set within an aedicule, with a triple round-headed attic window in an ornate scrolled architrave. The outer gables feature two-storeyed canted bay windows and paired round-headed attic lights. This front is also furnished with 19th-century fenestration including a central two-storeyed rectangular bay window.

The side walls and axial chimney stacks are of varied origin. Some were rebuilt or added by the architect Penson, possibly following an earlier form: these stacks have octagonal shafts with scalloped caps set on high rectangular bases.

The interior plan as reordered in 1840–53 includes a central entrance hall with an offset stair hall to the southeast. The south wing contains a library and drawing room, with a dining room to the rear of the entrance hall. A small sitting room opens off the east of the north wing, while the kitchen and service rooms occupy the northwest.

The entrance hall is lined with early 17th-century-style panelling and contains a stone fireplace in the 19th-century Renaissance Revival manner, complete with wood overmantle. The hall and staircase beyond are entirely panelled with heavy raised fielded panelling to walls and ceiling. The staircase itself dates to around 1670, though it was moved and reconstructed by Penson: the treads are splayed in plan with scrolled moulded ends, turned balusters, and square newels (the lower newel likely a 19th-century replacement). Pedimented architraves over the doors are mostly 19th-century additions.

The small sitting room to the north displays late 17th-century-style panelling with heavy raised and fielded panels and moulded wood cornice. Its fireplace has bolection moulding with raised panels matching those of the overmantle.

The dining room retains wall panelling of an earlier 17th-century type, consistent with a building date around 1670. Its Renaissance-style fireplace, with a highly ornate overmantle, originated from a building formerly belonging to the Crutched Friars in London, but was reworked by Henry Street. A ribbed plaster ceiling, installed during the 1840–53 campaign, is derived from the design of the gallery at Hardwick Hall.

The drawing room to the southeast features a ribbed plaster ceiling. The library to the southwest contains fittings of 1840–53 in Renaissance Revival style: arcaded shelves with reeded pilasters and segmental arches, and a trailed frieze. Similar detail appears in the fireplace, where the overmantle may be substantially 17th-century in origin.

A small room to the northwest retains late 17th-century painted panelling and a bolection moulded fireplace. A full-height back staircase with turned balusters, probably of 17th-century date, stands nearby.