Description

WICKEN
SP73NW
9/121 Wicken Park
03/02/83

GV II

Country house, now school. Early C18 with possible C16 origins. Wings added and
altered by Thomas Prowse for himself. Extra storey added and other alterations
C19. Limestone ashlar, hipped slate roof, brick internal stacks. 3 storeys with
2-storey wings, 10-window range to north. Double-depth plan. North, present
entrance front has C19 porch to left of centre and sash windows with flat-arched
heads. 3 bays either side of 2-bay centre break forward slightly. 2-storey wings
have canted projections and 3 12-pane sashes to ground and 1st floors with flat
arched heads. Plinth and 1st floor storey band. 9-window garden front to south.
Wings have 2 windows to this side to ground and 1st floor. All sash windows with
flat-arched heads. West side elevation of 3 bays, that to centre breaking
forward slightly. C19 office wing to east. Interior has 2-storey staircase hall
with re-set mid C18 staircase rising to gallery-landing with slim turned
balusters and carved tread ends. Plaster modillion cornice. Dentil and guilloche
pattern plaster cornices to other rooms in west wing, another with reeded
plaster cornice and moulded 6-panel door. Fielded panelling to rooms either end
of south front one with bolection-moulded fireplace, the other with blocked
corner fireplace. Wicken Park was formerly one of the lodges of the Whittlewood
Forest, sold 1716 to Charles Hosier who enlarged it. The house came into the
Prowse family through the marriage of Thomas Prowse of Axbridge, Somerset, to
Elizabeth Sharp, eldest daughter of the Hosiers only child Anna Maria. Their
descendants lived there until 1860 when it was sold to Colonel the Hon. George
Sholto Douglas-Pennent, later Baron Penrhyn, who enlarged the house and restored
and enlarged the Church (q.v.) in memory of his first wife who died 1869. The
Penrhyn family lived at Wicken Park until 1944 when the estate was sold.
(Buildings of England: Northamptonshire; 1973, p462; C.S. Dickin Moore: Wicken
Church, 1967; H. Colvin: A Dictionary of British Architects: 1978, p667)

Listing NGR: SP7439038206

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26293547

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)