Park Place and Terraced Garden on West Side

Details

REMENHAM SU 78 SE 1/18 Park Place and terraced garden on west side G.V. II Large country house in landscaped park now special school. 1870 by Thomas Cundy in a French Renaissance style. Rendered brick with string courses at ground and first floors and impost level on second floor; slate mansard roof. 2 storeys with part basement and attics. Entrance front: slightly projecting symmetrical 3 bay frontespiece, pavilion roof with 2 levels of dormer windows, the upper lucarnes with finials, double centre dormer with central segmental pediment. Projecting porte cochere with antae and columns, double entrance doors half glazed in semi-circular surround. To left 2 bays with pavilioned roof, 3 dormers the central stone dormer with segmental pediment. One similar bay to right of frontespiece. 3-storey tower and attic beyond with steep trunceated pyramidal roof parapet with moulded stone brackets above third storey, stone balconies on moulded stone brackets with decorative wrought iron balustrade and 3 coupled round headed sash windows in moulded surrounds on third storey. Similar single sash on first floor and a square head sash with pedimented surround on ground floor. West front: similar with two 2 storey angular bays with heavy moulded cornice and sash windows in moulded surrounds. Beyond this front is a terraced garden now grassed, approached from an upper terrace by a forked flight of stone steps with moulded stone balusters moulded handrail and plain dies with stone urns at intervals continuing to form a balustrade to high ashlar retaining wall containing 2 segmental arched niches with vermiculated voissoirs and moulded keystones, on either side of steps. Garden bounded by a low stone wall with raised moulded corner panels with urns at intervals. Interior: vestibule leading to large entrance hall with central decorated opening through a 3 arched arcade to elegant 2 storey stair hall containing 3 flight forked staircase with turned wooden balusters with elaborate wrought iron decoration between, moulded handrail and newels; oval domed ceiling over. Facing stairs is a 6-panelled door in moulded surround with a niche on either side with wooden Jacobean style moulded surrounds. Various similar panelled doors in hall with matching dado. Principal rooms on ground floor have decorated plaster ceilings, some quite rich. The present house stands on the site of a former house built C18 by Lord Archibald Hamilton who sold the estate to Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III. In 1752 it was purchased by General (later Field- Marshall) The Hon. Henry Seymour Conway who laid out the grounds and built the Grotto at the head of Happy Valley, the bridge at the foot of the same valley, and laid out the Braid Temple, all listed separately. V.C.H. Vo.III. p.162. B.O.E. Berkshire p.192.

Listing NGR: SU7770382139

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

41283

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1966), 192
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1906), 162

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 3 Berkshire,

End of official list entry

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