Loseley House

Details

SU 94 NE ARTINGTON C.P. LITTLETON LANE

3/41 Loseley House 18.2.58

GV I

Country house. Built in 1562 to 1569 by Sir William More, possibly around an older core, west wing added in c.1600, possibly to a design by John Thorpe. Altered, c.1689, west wing demolished in 1835 and nursery wing added to south east in 1877. Sandstone with malmstone and clunch dressings, the sandstone originally brought from Waverley Abbey, and slate roofs. The original intention was to build a half-H shaped plan house with courtyard and open end to north closed by a wall and gatehouse. Only south and west wings were built. Main house is now the former south wing. Mainly two storeys with attics to ends, single storey nursery wing with attics. Entrance Front: (to north). Asymmetrical with moulded plinth and angle quoining to bays. Multiple brick stack to left, ridge and rear ridge stacks to left and right of centre and square corbelled stack to right end. Four projecting square gabled bays and three recessed bays with gabled dormers over. Stone dressed, mullioned, leaded casement fenestration with arched lights, some under simple hood mouldings. Gabled bay to left: one attic window, one large 12-light first floor window and two ground floor windows. Bay to right: one ground and one first floor window, gabled dormer above. Tall entrance bay to right again with one window on first and second floors, three first floor windows to right in the first bay of a three bay hall range. Large square bay to right with three tiers of six lights rising through the ground and first floors to light the hall, attic window above. Two further bays to right - one window to each floor of each bay. Entrance to left of centre - C17 doorway with fluted Doric pilasters, triglyph frieze, broken scroll pediment with cartouche, semi-circular fanlight and double doors of eight moulded panels. South Front: Irregular, with a projection to west end and two large and one small gable. Two windows below, five gabled dormers and eight windows to remainder. Small round headed vermiculated doorway on ground floor with iron studded door. C19 loggia to east. Nursery Wing: Four gabled dormers, brick below on ground floor, stone above. Interior: Main entrance with block rusticated, arched surround, leads to screens passage of great hall to right. Passage has Jacobean panelling, fluted pilasters and arched door surrounds. Great Hall: Minstrels gallery to west end with balustrade on guilloche moulded brackets and fluted Ionic columns attached to panelled and glazed screen. High relief foliage and fruit carving attributed to Grinling Gibbons (an early work). C19 ceiling with plasterwork panels. Trompe l'oeil inlay panelling to west end taken from Nonsuch Palace showing perspective view of passages in arched panels ¼" deep. Painted panels on south walls with H and K (Katherine Parr) intertwined. Italian style "grottesche" panels over the gallery, also brought from Nonsuch (from the banqueting hall). White stone "Kentian" fireplace with Ionic columns and Elizabethan overmantle. Library: Panelled ceiling, C19, in Jacobean style. Four centred, rusticated, arched opening to fireplace with Elizabethan overmantle dated 1570, thought to be made up from one of Queen Elizabeth's travelling cases. Drawing Room: Late C16 with panelled ceiling and frieze of moorhens and Cockatrices. Large clunch fireplace. Two storeyed with coupled columns below on plinth decorated with classical swags. Coupled caryatids above. The fireplace surround rusticated with some vermiculation, strapwork and panelling above. Late C17 staircase with twisted balusters. Upper rooms have some C17 panelling, moorhen and Cockatrice friezes and fireplaces. Queen Elizabeth I visited the house in 1577, 1583 and 1591, James I in 1603 and 1606, and Charles I, when Prince of Wales, in 1617. PEVSNER: Buildings of England, Surrey (1971) pp 353-356 COUNTRY LIFE: Articles on Loseley House by Marcus Binney 2.10.69 and 9.10.69 Vol.CXLVI Articles on Loseley House by C. Hussey Vol. LXXVII p 544 (1935).

Listing NGR: SU9749547149

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

288298

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I Rev. by Cherry, The Buildings of England: Surrey, (1971), 353-356
Country Life in 2 April, Vol. 146, (1969)
Country Life in 23 March, Vol. 77, (1935), 544
Country Life in 9 October, Vol. 146, (1969)

End of official list entry

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