British Listed Buildings

Listing Text

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

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.