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STOURHEAD HOUSE at Stourton, Warminster, Wiltshire

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DESIGN and ACCESS STATEMENT Heritage Assessment Statement of Significance STOURHEAD HOUSE at Stourton, Warminster, Wiltshire National Trust MAY 2017 1 Contents Introduction 3 Context: History of Stourhead and Stourton 4 The Site & Proposed works 5 Summary and Statement of Significance 6 Historical use and development 10 2 Introduction This document has been prepared to provide a historical and architectural assessment of Stourhead House, Stourton, Wiltshire, and its relationship with the main house and wider estate. The report is intended to inform and support an application for Listed Building Consent for removal of the existing cupboard housing elecrical equipment and replacement with a 1hr fire rated cupboard encompasing all the electrical items - some of which are at present exposed - in order to comply with fire regulations and means of escape. This report has been produced in accordance with the recommendations of National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012), and follows the guidance of English Heritage/Historic England concerning standards of building conservation and good recording practice, as detailed in Conservation Principles (2008), Informed Conservation (2001) and Understanding Historic Buildings (2006). The Grade 1-listed Stourhead House, in the ownership and care of the National Trust. lies within the Grade 1-registered park and garden, as well as the wider Stourhead Conservation Area and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire AONB. 3 Context: History of Stourhead and Stourton The settlement at Stourton, lies on the border of Wiltshire and Somerset, and was mentioned in the Domesday survey (as Storetone). The manor and estate are reputed to have been in the ownership of the Stourton family from before the time of the Norman Conquest. The estate was first sold to Thomas Mere c.1704, and was soon afterwards bought, in 1717, by Henry Hoare (1677-1725), who was part of an established London banking family. The previous medieval house, Stourton House was demolished in 1720, and the current Palladian house was built for Henry Hoare on a new site c.1721-24 and renamed Stourhead. It was Henry’s son (also Henry) who created the landscape gardens in the valley to the southwest of the house. The Stourhead estate passed down through generations of the Hoare family until 1946, when it was given into the care of National Trust by Sir Henry and Lady Alda Hoare, following the death of their only son Harry in the First World War. The Hoare family retains ownership of the neighbouring Stourhead Western estate. The Grade 1-listed Stourhead House is a prototype Palladian house designed by Colen Campbell for the first Henry Hoare, and constructed c.1721-24, faced in limestone ashlar under slate roofs. When the house was first built, a railed forecourt with oval lawn was laid out to the east front of the house, while walled gardens were constructed to the south (Estate Map, 1722; Woodbridge 1970). Wings to accommodate a picture gallery and library were added to the north and south of the house, c.1796-1800, for Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838). The tetrastyle portico was added c.1840 for Sir Henry Hugh Hoare (1762- 1841), in accordance with Campbell’s original designs. The central portion of the house was severely damaged by fire in 1902, and was restored for the Hoare family under the architectural supervision of, first, Doran Webb and, later, Sir Aston Webb. The house was served by a walled kitchen garden, which survives to the south, while the neighbouring stable yard is believed to incorporate survivals from the service courts of the demolished medieval house (Mayes 1995). To the southwest of the house lies the iconic eighteenth-century landscape garden originally created by Henry Hoare II (1705-85) after his return from Italy c.1741. Henry Hoare II also employed the architect Henry Flitcroft, who was responsible for the design of many of the garden buildings and features. Notable structures include the Temple of Apollo, Pantheon, Palladian bridge, Grotto, Gothic Cottage and Obelisk, each of which is individually designated at Grade 1. The extensive lake at the heart of the garden was created through damming of the existing stream. After Henry Hoare II’s death, the garden was further embellished over time with additional planting, while some early buildings were removed. Sir Richard Colt Hoare created a new entrance to the gardens from the village, close to St Peter’s Church, in addition to the original entrance from the higher ground close to the house. He also added gravel paths to allow easier enjoyment of the garden circuit by the already-plentiful visitors. The registered park and garden at Stourhead are Grade 1-listed, while the wider Stourhead estate contains a wealth of designated heritage assets: a total of 22 listed features (8 of these listed at Grade 1) and 16 scheduled monuments, with a history traceable back through archaeological features and investigations to Neolithic times. Stourhead house, gardens, park and village also sit within a designated Conservation Area and the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB. It may therefore be readily appreciated that the house, grounds and wider estate at Stourhead have a long and complex history of development and evolution, with many distinct and interrelated historical layers. 4 The Site The electrical equipment is situated in the basement corridor by a fire exit door and next to the basement exploration room. It also sits by the film seating area. exposed electrical equipment and connections above fire exit door. The Proposed Electrical Cupboard Is to be constructed to 1hr fire resistance, constructed of a fire proofed material with an external finish of plain emulsion , colour to be as the existing cupboard. Ventilation will be the means of grills with intumecent fire protrction. The cupbards are handle-less with dead locks and finger bolts (internally) to doors. The Proposed fire cupboard will be of the same size as the existing but be extended to cover existing electrical equipment not already protected by the present cupboard. The existing cupboard was constructed in the 1980s prior to the development of the corridor and adjacent basement room. Its construction is a lightweight timberstructure with plywood doors and open holes for ventilation and is painted in an oil based paint. At the time of construction the area was not open to the public and not a means of escape. In order to continue using this basement area the existing cupboard must be replacerd with a similar cupboard but 1hr fire resistance with appropriatly protected ventilation. The Exposed electical board adjacent and above the means of escape equally needs enclosing and being made 1hr resistant and this will be incorperated within the new structure. The finish is to be a water based non-surface spread of flame emulsion of a similiar /same colour as existing. 5 Summary and Statement of Significance Stourhead House and Gardens are internationally significant examples of important types in the history of house and garden design. The mansion house is a rare survival of an early eighteenth-century Palladian design by Colen Campbell, with later additions dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as internal restorations following the fire of 1902. Henry Hoare II’s landscape garden is a word-famous example of the eighteenth- century English school of landscape design, featuring individually significant garden buildings (many designed by Flitcroft) as visual events in the garden circuit. The Grade 1-registered parkland is similarly of high significance as a survival of a designed and managed landscape within an important country estate. It contains many individually significant (and designated) examples of built, landscape and archaeological heritage. 6 HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT There was a park at Stourton during the C15 and C16, which was created by the Stourton family who owned the estate from before the Norman Conquest. In 1717 the Stourton family sold their estate to Henry Hoare I (1677-1725), a wealthy banker from London. Henry Hoare replaced the Stourton home with a Palladian-style country house designed by Colen Campbell c 1721-4. To the east of the new house was a railed forecourt with an oval lawn, and walled gardens were laid out to its south. In 1725, Henry's son, Henry Hoare II (1705-85) inherited Stourhead. In c 1733 he began to extend his father's gardens with a formal terrace walk of Scotch firs to the west of the house. After his return from Italy in 1741, he started to lay out an extensive landscape garden influenced by what he had seen during his travels. He created a lake from two existing ponds situated in a valley to the west of the house, which formed the foreground to the new gardens looked down upon from the hillside near the house. A single-span wooden bridge crossed the north-west arm of the new lake, and a circuit walk led through the pleasure ground, passing several garden buildings mostly designed by his friend the architect Henry Flitcroft. The various buildings and features included the Temple of Flora, the Pantheon, the Grotto, the Temple of Apollo, the Hermitage, the Bristol High Cross, and the Obelisk. After 1765 other features were added, amongst which were the Palladian Bridge, the Gothick Greenhouse, and the Turkish Tent. Henry Hoare II also undertook an extensive planting scheme, the main purpose of which was to create pictorial effects and contrasts between dark and light. In the late 1770s he completed Alfred's Tower, the focal point for a formal ride around the park and surrounding woods, which had already been conceived in 1762. C W Bampfylde recorded the landscape gardens created by Henry Hoare II in a series of detailed drawings of c 1770 (reproduced in Woodbridge 1971).
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