Denford Park, Kintbury - Hungerford Virtual Museum

Denford Park. Kintburv. Berkshire
The Dining Room
The room to the east of the Saloon on the south front was almost certainly the original
Dining room and is listed as such on the 1924 Sales Particulars. Latterly is has been
known as the Study Centre.
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The room has a boarded floor, but of narrow floorboards, probably of mid-20
century date. It retains a moulded skirting board and has a moulded dado rail - both
of which could be original - but there is no surviving cornice and the ceiling is quite
flat.
The doorway from the Saloon is one of two in this room's long west wall, the other, at
the north end, leading off the Entrance Hall. Both have matching pedestalled door
cases, panelled reveals, and veneered doors with central bead; both doors have
evidence of change to their escutcheons but retain what seems to be some of the
original door furniture.
A third doorway and door in the east wall, opposite the northern one in the west wall,
appears to be of the same date and design but may not necessarily be in situ. It now
leads into the East Wing (Building B2).
The room is lit by two windows, one in the south front and another - actually a
French window - in the east return. The south window has a pedestalled architrave
and simply panelled shutters.
The French window has a clumsier reveal probably remodelled when an original
window was converted - probably as recently as the 1939 alterations. Cuts on either
side in the skirting board and dado rail indicate that this alteration is later in date than
they are.
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The room did have a fireplace on the west wall, and this was described as being
having a 'Carved Marble Mantlepiece' in the 1924 Sales Particulars. It has since
been removed and the recess used as a low cupboard.
For some reason, both of the opposing northern doors are set into a shallow projection
from the main wall line. These are, nevertheless, respected by the skirting board and
the dado rail.
One possibility may be that these doorways were originally on either side of a
passageway leading from the Entrance Hall into the predecessor of the present East
Wing and that at a later date the wall between this and the then smaller, but better
balanced, Dining Room, Was removed and a replacement corridor created to the north.
However, judging from the dimensions in the 1924 Sales Particulars, if such a change
did indeed take place, it had already done so.
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Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SYS OEA