Denford Park, Kintbury - Hungerford Virtual Museum

Denford Park. Kintbury, Berkshire
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Both Wyattville and Papworth designed buildings in many different styles and both
designed ones with similar bows. For example, Wyattville remodelled Woolley Park,
Brightwalton, Berkshire in 1799; the cement rendered main facade sports a big bow
with attached Tuscan columns. 49 Thirty years later, Papworth added a large bow
window to Little Grove, Barnet, in 1828. 50
However, on balance, it seems more likely that the bow was part of the original
design, based mainly on the evidence of the internal layout. The internal divisions
reflect the present footprint of the house, as do, perhaps more importantly, the
positions of the fireplaces. Thus, the main saloon with bowed front would have been
a very much less significant space if the bow was not original, as would the main
bedroom above; in both cases, the present fireplaces are roughly central to the rooms
they serve - inclusive of the bowed projections.
More support for the bowed garden front being primary is an undated inkwash of
'Denford House before alterations'. This shows the bowed front in place but there
has been discussion as to the date of the illustration.
Papworth is known to have made changes to the parapet of the Main House. Prior to
that time there seems only to have been a cornice and the roof had overhanging eaves
in the Italianate manner.
On the ink-wash view of the garden front the roof over both the main part of the
house and the services are shown to have overhanging eaves; the Main House is also
shown to have had a cornice beneath the eaves.
The quality of the drawing suggests that it would have been unlikely for the artist not
to have shown the existing parapet if it had been in place. The sketch seems to be of a
broad-19 th century style and as a result, the alterations in question are unlikely to have
been those of 1939. 5 Indeed, photographs of 1924 show that the parapet was already
in place by that time.
On balance, therefore, it is suggested that this illustration shows the house more or
less as built to Wyattville's design in 1815 - and that the bow front is part of his
design and that the house originally had overhanging eaves. The style was therefore
less strictly neo-classical than a typically and rather stiffly English variant on the
Italianate villa.
The internal layout of the main part of the house seems to have been fairly
straightforward and there are no indications that it has been altered significantly in
plan.
The design of the entrance is open to debate considering that it may have been
remodelled. If the present arrangement and portico do indeed belong to the 1830's
alterations, it is likely that the front door was protected in some way - perhaps by a
49 Pevsner, N, 1988, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, 102
'° Worsley, G (ed.), 1991, Architectural Drawings of the Regency Period, 94-5
'' The title of the ink-wash is Denford House; by 1939 it was known as Denford Park
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Richard KMorriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SYS OEA