Wardour Castle

Details

TISBURY WARDOUR PARK ST 92 NW (north side)

4/271 Wardour Castle 25.10.51 GV I

Country house, now Cranborne Chase School. 1770-76 by James Paine for Eighth Lord Arundell. Limestone ashlar, hipped Welsh slate roofs, ashlar stacks. Square main block with flanking pavilions. North front has rusticated basement below piano nobile with mezzanine and attic floor over, 9 bays, centre three break forward. Central double half-glazed doors with four 6-pane sashes either side to chamfered rusticated basement, stepped bands to piano nobile with central Palladian window of Ionic order with balustraded apron, four 12-pane sashes either side with pediments or dentilled cornices. Mezzanine floor has small 6-pane sashes, attic has 6-pane sashes in moulded architraves, dentilled and modillioned cornice and pediment. Concave front link to pavilions; 5 round-arched openings to double doors and sashes with niches to sides of basement, first floor has large sashes, cornice to blocking course with ball finials. Front of pavilions have 6-pane sashes to basements, Venetian window and flanking sashes to piano nobile, pediment and blocking course concealing attic with 3-pane and 6-pane sashes and Chapel (q.v.) east end with three leaded lunettes. East pavilion has canted east end with sashes and semi- circular panels over, attached C20 ranges of school facilities. For west pavilion see Chapel. South front has rusticated basement with eight 6-pane sashes and central double doors, piano nobile with giant Composite Order flanking round-arched central window with flanking niches, three large pedimented sashes either side, fluted frieze with paterae to upper floor with 6-pane sashes, cornice and pediment as north front. Left return has 5-bay basement, five large sashes to piano nobile, and 6-pane sashes to mezzanine and attic. Right return has basement below main floor with central Palladian window and one sash to right and two to left, 6-pane or 9-pane sashes to mezzanine and to attic. Interior: Main feature is central rotunda of main block with fine flying stairs in two curves, wrought iron balustrade to stairs and to gallery with Composite columns to coffered dome and glazed lantern, semi-circular niches in gallery walls also coffered (illustrated in Pevsner). Piano nobile occupied by state rooms and apartment in south-west corner, including the 'Boudoir', remodelled by Soane c1790; all retaining original pairs of double 8-panelled doors, some pedimented, window shutters, plaster ceiling friezes and marble fireplaces. Particularly good plaster ceilings include a saucer dome in Reading Room and gilded ceiling in Boudoir. Former kitchen in east pavilion has blocked open fireplace, now school gym. One of the finest Palladian houses in Wiltshire. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of Engand, Wiltshire, 1975; Country Life, 22 and 29 November 1930)

Listing NGR: ST9277826927

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

321061

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, (1975)
Country Life in 22 November, (1930)
Country Life in 29 November, (1930)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 46 Wiltshire,

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