Denford Park, Kintbury - Hungerford Virtual Museum

Denford Park. Kintburv. Berkshire
The Saloon or Drawing Room
The principal ground-floor room occupies the centre of the southern pile and projects
into the bow on the south, or garden front. Latterly it was known simply as 'Lecture
Room No.l' on the college's fire prevention plans and as 'Room No.l
Administration' on a door plate. In the Sales Particulars of 1924 it is described as the
'Charming Drawing Room'; it may originally have been the Saloon but on
Papworth's drawings of the 1830's it is described as the Drawing Room.
The room is lit by the three windows in the projecting bow, which have fairly simple
architraves with pedestals and equally simple shutters. These originally had fullheight
reveals but low radiator covers have been inserted into them, probably hi the
mid-ZO* century.
The bow is echoed in the apsidal north end of the room, evidently boxed out in
studwork and plaster from the structural spine wall. At this end the central doorway
into the room is flanked by arch-headed cupboards with glazed doors.
The doors are of fine quality, veneered inside and out, and curved to the profile of the
apse. The lower opening doors have applied moulded panel surrounds with quadrant
cut corners and rosettes in the angles; the astragals of the opening upper glazed
sections are thin and finely crafted. In between is an entablature with carefully
crafted fluted frieze.
However, it is possible that the doors are secondary. The moulded skirting board of
the room runs into the recesses, which seems unlikely to have been the case if they
were originally designed to have doors and more likely if they were simply meant to
be recesses. The doors probably relate to some of the Papworth drawings (see above).
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The present cornice of the room respects its present footprint and apsidal ends. It is a
rather over-elaborate composition that also forms a ceiling frame and has what
appears to be a very thin architrave of bead-and-reel moulding, a broader frieze of
lotus leaf, and a broader moulded cornice enriched with applied rosettes.
The otherwise flat ceiling is divided into three compartments - the middle section and
the two apsidal ends - by frames of more bead-and-reel mouldings. This work is also
comparable to the Papworth drawings.
The floor of the room is of oak but largely hidden by modern carpet. In the west side
of the room is a remarkably Spartan marble chimneypiece of early-19 th century form,
with panelled surround, rosettes in the angles between jambs and lintel, and a primary
mantle shelf.
Almost opposite the fireplace is a doorway hi the east wall leading into the adjacent
Dining Room. This has a simply moulded frame and a high quality veneered door
with central bead. There is a slight oddity in the relationship between the pedestals of
the door case and the taller skirting board.
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Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SYS OEA