The English Country House and Chilton Lodge - Hungerford Virtual ...

shape of the Soane villa at Chilton follows closely his design for Saxlingham Parsonage in
Suffolk.
#4
We know that Soane was unhappy that he had been obliged to use substantial materials
from the previous house in constructing his villa, about which he was somewhat tetchy.
Whether there was some severe constructional defect or whether Mr. Pearse just wanted
to spend more money on a bigger house is not clear.
Extraordinarily, within 5 years, Mr. Pearse commissioned the current house, which was
completed in 1800 to the designs of William Pilkington. Part of the very first cargo to
travel down the newly opened Hungerford stretch of the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1798
was 'a wrought Portland stone staircase for J. Pearse of Chilton Lodge.' The new house
was built on a different site across the county boundary in Berkshire, some 600 yards
from the earlier houses. The Soane house was demolished when the new Lodge was
completed.
#5, 6
Pilkington was not an obvious choice for someone wishing to make a splash. His other
large commissions were relatively limited and included Folkestone Gaol and Portsmouth
Customs House, as well as alterations to private houses at Wick Hill near Calne and
Calverton House near Stony Stratford. The classical design of the new house at Chilton
apparently follows the style of Pilkington's mentor, Sir Robert Taylor. Nonetheless, his
design was fashionable and impeccably situated, and we think Pilkington did a pretty
good job!
#7, 8
Humphrey Repton laid out the park around the new house for John Pearse as it was built.
He was one of the greatest and most innovative landscape designers of the late 18C-early
19C. As far as we know, no detailed account of his plans for Chilton (called a Red Book)
survives, but there are ample references to his scheme in his other works. The river,
which he had widened to provide a 'flash' vista from the house, has been narrowed again
to improve the flow for fishing, but elements of the Repton design for the park, such as
earthworks to the east of the house, and much of the planting, survive to this day.
#9
Although I do not yet have all the proof, I believe that John Pearse really shaped the estate
as it exists today. A number of the farm houses seem to date from this period and an
estate map that we have from 1810 already has many of the names that are still
associated with the estate.
[Some farmhouses have been sold, and some land as well, but other bits of land have
been bought and two new houses and some cottages have been built, so that the
estate now is almost exactly the same size as it was 200 years ago.]
The house went through various hands during the middle of the 19C. and was offered for
rental on an annual basis in the Times from 1858, a copy of which is still in the house.
The mid-19C does not seem to have been a happy period, for the house at least.
The estate was bought by Sir William Pearce, 2 nd Bart, of Cardell in Renfrewshire in 1890.
His father, the first Sir William, had made a fortune from shipbuilding at Govan on the
Clyde. His heir inherited the title, and one assumes the chequebook, in 1888 at the age of
27.
#10
Sir William immediately employed the eminent architect Sir Arthur Blomfield ARA. He was
a an enthusiastic proponent of the Gothic revival, and most of his career was taken up
with building and altering London churches, a suitable occupation for the fourth son of a
one-time Bishop of London. All of which made him an odd choice for a neo-classical
house such as Chilton. Both men were educated at Rugby, albeit 30 years apart, so