Madresfield Court, Including Bridge, Retaining Wall and North Service Court

Details

MADRESFIELD CP - SO 84 NW 6/70 Madresfield Court, including bridge, 25.3.68 retaining wall and north service court GV I Country house. C16, on earlier moated site with later additions. Extensively restored, rebuilt and extended 1866-88 by P C Hardwick. Brick with stone dressings and tile roof. Entrance front is approached by C16 or C17 brick bridge. Four gabled bays were raised by one storey to four storeys in 1885. The two central bays project. Windows are mullioned, with transoms on the ground and first floor. At the left is a fifth gabled bay, canted back to follow the course of the moat and of two storeys with attic. The west side of the house contains servants' rooms and includes glazing bar sashes. On the north side a service court including a game larder and brew house was added in 1870 and connected to the main house by a covered bridge over the moat. To the right of the entrance front is the two-storey canted bay window of the library, with the south wall of the chapel to its right. The east side of the house has a variety of bay windows and gables. Parallel with the projecting chapel, at the north end of the east front, is the north-east wing containing the drawing room and music room, on the site of C18 extensions. Near the junction with the main house is a timber bellcote with fleche added in 1875. A retaining wall follows the line of the moat to connect the chapel with the north-east wing. In the centre of the house is a courtyard. On the south side is a wall of stone tracery with double doors opening into the dining room. The other elevations are elaborately timber-framed, with jetties on the west and north sides and an east gallery. The paving has inlaid pattern and a date "1888". Interior: the staircase hall of 1913 has three glass domes. The stair, and galleries on two sides, have carved newels and irontwist glass balusters. The dining room, on the site of the great hall, has a false hammerbeam roof and a chimney piece with re-used C17 woodwork. On the first floor the long gallery on the east side of the house is on the site of the Elizabethan gallery and contains re-set panelling of the period and a chimneypiece of 1610 removed from a farmhouse. The first floor room over the entrance has an original plaster frieze and a ceiling in three panels, and another bedroom has a ceiling of shallow pitch, with vine, rose and acorn ornament in an ogival pattern. The Japanese Bedroom and an adjoining bedroom have Deuxieme Empire panelling added in 1874. The library contains woodwork by C R Ashbee and the Guild of Handicraft, including two doors, and bookstack ends carved with the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. The Chapel has a complete scheme of Arts and Crafts decoration, carried out from 1902 until 1923. Murals in tempera by Henry Payne show Lord and Lady Beauchamp and their family. The reredos is by W H Bidlake, the panels and altar frontal by G M Gere, and glass quarries by M Lamplugh. (Country Life, October 16, 1980; October 23, 1980 and October 30, 1980).

Listing NGR: SO8086847504

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

153385

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Country Life in 16 October, (1980)
Country Life in 23 October, (1980)
Country Life in 30 October, (1980)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 20 Hereford and Worcester,

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