Details
COMPTON VERNEY
SP35SW COMPTON VERNEY
1901-1/6/63 Compton Verney and attached screen
06/02/52 wall
GV I
Country house. c1714 west range, attributed to Sir John
Vanbrugh, with alterations and additions of 1761-65 by Robert
Adam and alterations of 1855 by John Gibson. Limestone ashlar;
graduated slate roof with ashlar ridge and internal stacks.
U-plan; wings extended by Adam.
EXTERIOR: east, entrance, front: 2 storeys plus attic;
4-window centre with giant tetrastyle Corinthian colonnade by
Adam, flanking pedimented wings and re-entrant stair wings.
Balustraded parapet. Colonnade has unfluted columns and
frieze, cornice and balustrade continued over stair wings.
Rich coffering. Frieze over windows with festoons, rosettes
and central crest in belt by Gibson.
Entrance by Gibson has moulded pilaster strips, architrave,
pulvinated frieze with bay leaf and consoled cornice to
small-paned overlight and paired small-paned glazed doors;
flanking windows have architraves and 24-pane horned sashes;
attic has dormers. Stair wings have windows with architraves,
pulvinated friezes and pediments to 8/12 horned sashes, upper
windows with 8-pane glazing; returns have plain entrances with
round windows over.
Taller wings have 4-window returns; first-floor sill courses
and top friezes and cornices; windows have architraves to 8/12
sashes, those to ground floor with pulvinated friezes and
cornices; entrances with small-paned overlights and C19 doors
with 2 round-headed glazed panels over 2 fielded panels. Ends
have rusticated quoin strips and pediments with lunettes;
Venetian windows in arches, with balustraded aprons, Ionic
colonnettes and small-paned sashes; first-floor windows with
architraves and consoled cornices to 8/12 sashes.
1714 west, garden, front of 3:5:3 bays, rusticated quoin
strips to ends, plat bands and first-floor sill bands and top
friezes and cornices; taller centre has Doric pilasters
framing end bays, first-floor sill band, entablature and
balustraded parapet. Round-headed French window has rusticated
Doric pilasters and entablature with triglyph frieze,
small-paned glazing over 2 fielded panels. Round-headed
windows have plain architraves with large key blocks to
small-paned sashes, those to ground floor with aprons and
niches with similar treatment to end bays of centre; those to
first floor have impost bands; attic has pedimented dormers
with 4/4 sashes.
Screen wall attached to left end, masking demolished service
wing, has plain surrounds to entrance and blind window. South
facade has similar treatment; originally of 4 bays with end
bays breaking forward under pediments, extended by Adam, who
added 4 bays to right, the end bay breaking forward under
pediment. Rusticated quoin strips, broad first-floor sill band
and top frieze and cornice; lunettes to pediments; 5
pedimented dormers.
North side facing demolished service wing of dressed stone
with ashlar dressings; basement on brick plinth exposed to
right end has recessed-chamfered mullioned window and similar
window altered to entrance; blind windows above and bell to
pediment; other windows have 24-pane and 8/12 sashes.
INTERIOR: designed by Adam including hall and saloon;
plasterwork by Joseph Rose and Robert Moore; much altered by
Gibson. Hall has coloured marble floor, dado with mouldings to
plinth and cornice; screen with 2 Ionic columns to left end,
large fireplace, painted decoration by Andrea Zuchi, picture
frames with acanthus scrolling and eared and shouldered
architraves, entrances with architraves, friezes and cornices;
rich cornice to coffered ceiling with coving altered by
Gibson; much detail obscured by screening.
Saloon has pairs of scagliola Ionic columns screening apses,
dado, fluted frieze with paterae and dentil cornice; plain
fireplace; doorway to one end has architrave with frieze and
consoled cornice to large paired mahogany doors with enriched
panels and glass door knobs.
Rooms to south range have similar details: dados, wall panels,
rich cornices and doors; carved wood fireplaces with early C18
detail and C19 grates; one room has, probably, early C20
landscape wallpaper; dogleg staircase with turned balusters
and newel; octagonal end room has 4 closet/bookcases with rich
friezes and cornices, round-headed recesses with shelves flank
openings with glazed doors, one case with doorway and flanking
shelves of dummy books by female authors.
Rooms to north range with simpler details and eared
architraves to doorways; 2 rooms to west end have coved
cornices with acanthus and bay leaves, probably 1690s and a
survival from earlier house on site; blocked elliptical-headed
doorway possibly part of enfilade along west range; dogleg
staircase with stick balusters and some turned balusters to
top; kitchen to west range has large elliptical-headed arch
with key. Stair wings have C19 cantilevered stair with moulded
treads and cast-iron balusters and service stair with stick
balusters.
First floor has much altering and sub-division; eared
architraves to pine doors, but south range extension has plain
architraves; some carved wood fireplaces, some with Rococo
detail and one a Rococo-style angle fireplace; rooms to
original south range have evidence of taller elliptical-headed
doorways; one room to west range with elliptical-arched recess
and door with etched glass panel.
The cellar is partly vaulted and contains a tunnel which leads
to the service building (qv).
An important house, although altered, in grounds landscaped by
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Warwickshire: Harmondsworth:
1966-: 239-10; Shell Guides: Hickman D: Warwickshire: London:
1979-: 81; Country Life: Bolton A T: Compton Verney,
Warwickshire, a seat of Lord Willoughby de Broke: London:
1913-: 528-35; Occasional Papers: Tyack G: Warwickshire
Country Houses in the Age of Classicism 1650-1800: 1989-: 69).
Listing NGR: SP3106552830
