Gone, but not forgotten
Coleshill was the archetypal large house of the mid-17th century. Designed by the gentleman architect Sir Roger Pratt for his cousin, Sir George Pratt, apparently with the advice of Inigo Jones and perhaps also the involvement of John Webb, it had all the features of a grand house of its period – the Italianate proportions with rows of sash windows, the semi-basement storey to raise up the main floors, the strong cornice, the hipped roof with dormer windows, the big chimney stacks, and the best in classical mouldings and details. The interiors were impressive too, especially the grand double symmetrical staircase, lit by a cupola from above.
Alas, one day in September 1952 the whole lot went up in flames. In a chain of events similar to the fire at Uppark in Sussex in 1989, the blaze began during repair work, and house staff and estate workers ferried antiques and paintings out of the house, dodging molten lead from the roof as teams of firemen tried to bring the blaze under control. In spite of their efforts, the building was gutted and – here the resemblance to Uppark ends – the remaining masonry shell was later demolished. So Coleshill is a memory, one that lives on in black and white photographs in old architecture books.
But the great house has left its traces – estate buildings such as a farm and cottages, and these gate piers, which, with their accompanying stone wall, signal to the passer-by that there was once a grand building hereabouts. It’s initially a surprise that these piers are more ornate on the inside, away from the road. And then one realises that they signal no entrance drive and are a few paces away from a ha-ha surrounding the park. Clearly, they were designed to be looked at from the park, perhaps from the house itself, to enhance the view, a charming bit of visual punctuation amongst the water meadows and parkland that were once home to a very special English house.
Coleshill House in the years before the fire
Mmm. Big, ornate gate piers. I've got a thing about them. There was, I think, a move in the late seventeenth century in favour of them as opposed to building gate lodges. See also Honington and Fonthill.
ReplyDeleteAlong the road, nearer the village of Coleshill, is a pair of less ornate piers with a gate lodge. I'm not sure of the date of the lodge, but maybe it's later than the more ornate piers in my picture.
ReplyDeleteI was familiar with the interiors of Coleshill through
ReplyDeletevarious books on the subject of lost houses but had never seen those piers before now. They are superb.
And they make more poignant the loss of that
remarkable house.
Many thanks for this post.
Thank you, Toby. The whole subject of lost country houses, as documented in various books, and in that famous V&A exhibition in the 1970s, is fascinating and poignant.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable post, as usual.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been there for a couple of decades so my memory is slightly hazy, but I think that in the burnt-down-houses-with-surviving-gate-piers stakes Hamstead Marshall, Berkshire, takes some beating. The house burnt down 300 years ago, but about half a dozen pairs of gate piers survive, all (or perhaps nearly all) visible from the churchyard; a surreal sight.
Many thanks, David. I've not been to Hamstead Marshall so it sounds as if I'm due a trip.
ReplyDeleteI think much of the English town and country landscape it dotted with evidence of once-great houses. Often it's in a road name. Near where I live there is an 'Overton Drive' (in Wanstead) which once led up to Wanstead House. There a fine pair of gate-posts (I suppose I should say piers) at the cross roads where Overton Drive begins.
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrible shame to have lost such a beauty. I have in my library two "books", (one more of a pamphlet really) published by Save Britain's Heritage in 1990. One is "Scotland's Endangered Houses" and was co-authored by my then neighbour in Edinburgh's New Town. I suspect many of the houses have since completely fallen down, (literally). Some of them were staggeringly large, and would find no one owner occupier in today's world, but I think many could have been saved and redeveloped into very good subdivided accommodation, within beautiful parkland.
ReplyDeleteThe decade or so after World War II was the worst time for country houses. Hundreds were demolished, mainly because their owners could no longer afford their upkeep. The architectural loss was chronicled in the V&A's wonderful but depressing Destruction of the Country House in 1974, after which many of the still-vulnerable houses were saved, either for occupation (as apartments etc) or by the National Trust. But there were still some that fell through the safety net or that remain at risk. I remember Scotland's Mavisbank House from my involvement with the Restoration series, one terrible example of a major house all but destroyed by its owner.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that series, although I don't think I saw it in full, as we were either living abroad or about to do so. It is rewarding to see that one of Adam's masterpieces (Mavisbank) is being restored, and good that the public see the merit in doing so.
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