Description

HEYTHROP HEYTHROP PARK
SP32NE
5/85 National Westminster Bank
27/08/57 Staff College - Main House
(Formerly listed as Heythrop
House (College of St. Robert
Bellarmine))

GV II*

Country house (main range). Circa 1705 by Thomas Archer for Charles Talbot,
first Duke of Shrewsbury; gutted by fire 1831; restored and partly rebuilt 1871
by Alfred Waterhouse for Albert Brassey. Limestone ashlar; Welsh-slate roofs
with ashlar stacks. Double-courtyard plan, partly infilled. Baroque style. 2
storeys plus concealed attic on a semi-basement. Symmetrical entrance front has
bay divisions of 2:2:3:2:2 with the end sections breaking forward and the centre
recessed behind a projecting portico; a grand order of Corinthian pilasters and
columns, rising from a rusticated basement, supports a deep entablature
incorporating consoles on the projecting sections and modillions on the recessed
bays. Roof has a high balustraded parapet. Windows have elaborate eared and
shouldered stone architraves, at ground floor with straight entablatures but at
first floor with large double-stepped keyblocks, and the return walls of the
central recess have architraved niches to both floors. Central doorway has a
fine perspective doorcase with a concave entablature carried on scrolls and
supporting a large stone trophy of arms. Carved panels within the first-floor
windows are the only C19 alteration. Broad steps to portico are flanked by walls
terminating in panelled pedestals carrying large C19 iron lamp standards. Garden
front has similar 2-bay projections flanking a 9-bay central section, which is
unornamented save for horizontal rustication and the Doric doorcase; the
basement of the central section is in plain ashlar but has architraved windows
with scrolled pediments. The balustraded double stair rises over an arched
recess with vermiculated voussoirs. 9-window return fronts break forward in the
middle 5 bays between rusticated quoin strips and have architraved windows, at
first floor with keyblocks, but the north front also has horizontal and vertical
bands between the windows, and the central window has an inverted pediment on
tapering pilasters. Interior: C19 arcaded 2-storey hall in Baroque style has a
large fireplace and clerestory windows with figures of Faith, Hope and Charity
by Morris and Co; the stone staircase rises behind the lower arcade. Principal's
Lounge and Charlbury Room have heavy C19 panelling, fireplaces and coffered
ceilings, the doors with ebony mouldings on mahogany and walnut. Wedgwood Room
has an Adam-style ceiling and a white marble fireplace inset with 5 Classical
Wedgwood panels and with Oriental porcelain panels in the splays. Bar has a
marble fireplace with Tuscan columns and a central relief of a child leading a
lion. Heythrop Room has a vaulted ceiling and a small fireplace inlaid with
coloured marble. The original design may have been influenced by a scheme of
Paolo Falconieri and includes details from Italian sources; it was executed by
Francis Smith of Warwick. Heythrop is Archer's most important country house.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp647-9; VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, p135;
Country Life: 1905: Vol 18, pp270-6) -

Listing NGR: SP3639126437

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Heythrop Park at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5749809

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings