Kiddington Hall and Adjoining Orangery

Details

KIDDINGTON WITH ASTERLEIGH KIDDINGTON SP4122 10/65 Kiddington Hall and adjoining orangery

GV II

Country house. Circa 1850, by Charles Barry, incorporating a core of 1673. Squared and coursed limestone with ashlar dressings. Hipped slate roof. Square plan with adjoining service range to north and adjoining orangery to north-west. Remodelled in an Italianate style. Two storeys and attic. Chamfered plinth, first-floor cill string, quoin strips at angles, deep bracketed eaves and balustraded parapet (horizontally-symmetrical turned balusters) with panelled square dies and large urn finials. Ashlar stacks with bracketed cornices (some removed at time of survey - April 1987). East entrance front: 1:3:1 bays, with recessed centre; plate-glass sashes with moulded architraves, and bracketed cills to first floor. Central 3-bay stone porch with plinth, impost band, paired three-quarter Tuscan columns on pedestals and supporting sections of architrave, continuous frieze and cornice and balustraded parapet (drop balusters) with paired dies above columns and finials. Round-arched plate-glass windows with moulded architraves and raised keystones. Central pair of half-glazed doors with fanlight, moulded architrave and stone walls with vermiculated rustication and lions, South (garden) front: plate-glass sashes (tripartite in end bays) with moulded architraves, pulvinated friezes with moulded cornices to ground floor and bracketed cills to first floor. Pairs of low double doors beneath central sashes of end bays. Vest (garden) front: 1:6:1 bays, with recessed centre; plate-glass sashes with moulded architraves, pulvinated friezes with moulded cornices to ground floor and bracketed cills to first floor. Service range to north; 2 storeys: Cill bands and 2 ashlar ridge stacks. Five bays; glazing bar sashes with plain architraves. Orangery to north-west: c.1850, by Barry in an Italianate style. Ashlar. 1:8:1 bays; round-arched arcade consisting of square piers, pilasters with pedestals and carved foliate capitals, moulded architraves and carved spandrels depicting flowers and small animals; imposts, moulded architraves, raised keystones and flanking Tuscan pilasters; continuous entablature with dentil cornice and balustraded parapet with square dies and urn finials. Three-bay arcaded returns, that to left with walled arch to right and blind arches left and that to right with balustraded arch to left, central blind arch and window to right with margin lights. Interior of orangery: formerly with cast-iron roof construction (see rebates in front piers), now replaced by late C20 sloping roof. Arched recess in left-hand end. End bays arcaded on each sides (blind arch to rear of left-hand bay) with margin-light glazing in inner arches, tiled floors and moulded plaster cornices to flat ceilings. Two-bay link black to house; round-arched margin-light windows, moulded imposts, moulded architraves and raised keystones, Tuscan pilasters entablature and blocking course. Small vestibule between orangery and link block with apse to rear and moulded cornice; pair of glazed doors and steps down to interior of link with glazed-tile floor, pilasters, niches in rear wall and pair of 3-panelled doors into house with cornice and semi-circular tympanum. Interior of house: principal staircase hall with polection-moulded fireplace, and C18-style 3-flight staircase with closed string, turned balusters and square newel posts. Drawing room in a Rococo style with painted scrolls etc. on canvas, enriched cornice and ceiling medallion. Dining room with carved marble fireplace and ceiling with shallow plaster enrichment. Small drawing room in a Rococo style, with doorcases, fireplace with lugged architrave and ceiling with shallow plaster enrichment. Library with neo-Classical friezes and marble fireplace. Billiard room with dado panelling and fireplace. Although not much is visible it appears that the house does incorporate a C17 core, probably in the entrance range (see masonry in front wall and irregular roof line). The Hall stands in a small landscaped park, laid out by Capability Brown c.1740 or possibly in the 1760s and incorporating a serpentine lake formed by the damming of the River Glyme. Brown worked here c.1740 before being employed as gardener at Stowe. Formal gardens and terraces (q.v.) and the dovecote (q.v.), the church of Saint Nicholas (q.v.) and other park structures. (Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp669-70; Dorothy Stroud: Capability Brown (London), pp47-8; Kiddington park and gardens are included in H.B.M.C.E. Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade II)

Listing NGR: SP4117122841

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

252506

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stroud, D, Capability Brown, (1975), 47-8
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 669-70

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 34 Oxfordshire

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