Survey Data
Reg No
30405817
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Country house
In Use As
Country house
Date
1800 - 1820
Coordinates
153145, 243632
Date Recorded
30/12/1899
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey house, built c.1810, but possibly incorporating house of c.1730, having bowed central bay to rear, porch of c.1835 to front, slightly recessed single-storey two-bay L-plan double-pile wings flanking front elevation, and long courtyard of single and two-storey buildings. Hipped slate roofs, M-profile to wings with rendered chimneystacks to hips and to wings, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Lime rendered painted walls with rendered skirting. Square-headed window openings with six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to front façade, having tooled limestone sills, and with round-headed windows to end walls of wings, ground floor of rear and stairs window to rear gable and rear ground floor and bow-fronted bay. Square-headed eight panel timber entrance door with moulded timber surround set within tooled limestone surround flanked by paired stone pilasters with plinths and moulded capitals supporting tooled stone parapet with moulded entablature. Limestone stepped approach to porch. Rear has round-headed fixed twelve-pane stairs window to bow with spoked fanlight, square-headed six-over-six pane windows to first floor and round-headed six-over-six pane to ground floor with fanlights. Wings have square-headed six-over-six pane windows to front, round-headed six-over-six pane to rear, and west wing side elevations have square-headed six-over-six pane windows and some round-headed three-over-three pane windows with spoked fanlights. Rear parts of wings project forward of rear of house. Lower single-storey multiple-bay buildings in line with east wing return and having pitched slate roofs, rendered chimneystacks, rendered walls, and square-headed openings with timber sliding sash and some replacement windows and glazed timber doors. East range also has two-bay single-storey addition to east with hipped slate roof and rendered chimneystack and walls. Yard end of west wing return partly incorporates one end of nine-bay two-storey range with pitched slate roof, rendered chimneystacks and rendered walls. This range also has elliptical-arch throughway with ashlar stone surround with imposts and cornice, second elliptical carriage arch to north, and square-headed timber sliding sash and some replacement timber windows with limestone sills, and square-headed doorways with limestone block-and-start surrounds with replacment glazed timber doors. Two-storey range to north with pitched slate roof. Remains of cobblestones to courtyard surface. Set in large demesne with river to south and woods to west.
Appraisal
Newtown House is a relatively modest country house with a symmetrical facade, made grander by the attached wings and classical proportions and detailing that features typically in Georgian buildings. The house is set within extensive landscaped gardens which include the River Abbert, a walled garden including orchard and fine specimen planting. A fine courtyard of outbuildings and stables to the rear of the house makes a fine and spacious enclosure. The building has been sensitively restored in recent years with new timber six over six sash windows and lime rendered throughout. The doorcase of c.1835 is of note and adds visual and artistic interest to the elegant facade. The house, outbuildings, gardens, demesne bridge and gateway complete a fine composition of structures that provides a valuable insight into the extensive resources required to maintain a large country estate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.