Scope and Content
Sale catalogue of Hinwick House.
- agents: Cluttons of 13 Beaumont Street, Oxford and Portman House, 2 Portman Street, London;
- description: "Hinwick House was built between 1706 and 1710 for Richard Orlebar (1671-1733) a member of an ancient Northamptonshire family with links back to Saxon times. He did not move into the house until 1714. The house has been ranked as one of the very best examples of an early 18th century squire's house, largely unaltered with many original architectural features. Of particular note is the carved bas relief pediment on the south elevation. This depicts the Goddess Diana in a Chariot drawn by deer with three hounds following, clearly an allegorical tribute to Richard's wife Diana, nee Astry (apparently much of the cost of the house £3,648-6-8d was funded by her inheritance) and his fondness for hunting. He is known to have had one of the very earliest private packs of hounds and kept a pedigree breeding book. In later life, when age and ill health prevented him hunting, he presented the pack to the Duke of Grafton who thanked him saying "you have made me ye finest present of ye best hounds that can be bred in ye world!" The house became part of a larger estate when George Orlebar married Elizabeth Child who had inherited the Podington Estate and with it the Lordship of the Manor, which is still vested in the Orlebar family. The family extended the house in the 1860s to a design by F.C.Penrose, to provide a substantial wing on the north side of the Queen Anne house. During the First World War the house was used as an auxiliary hospital for convalescing wounded soldiers. The house remained in the Orlebar family until 1994 when it was sold and therefore the house is coming on the market for only the second time in three hundred and fifty years. The house and wing are listed Grade I, being of exceptional architectural and historical interest. The other buildings and features are listed Grade II. The Queen Anne house is built in finely coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings on three storeys. The top storey has plain Doric pilasters, with roof cornice and a balustraded parapet in the same style as Buckingham House (the forbear of Buckingham Palace). There is a moulded cornice at first floor level supported by giant Corinthian pilasters. The east elevation has seven bays divided 2:3:2 by pilasters, a central half glazed front door with semi-circular fanlight, architrave surround and consoles supporting a broken scrolled cartouche surrounding the Orlebar family crest and shield carved in stone. The south elevation has five window bays with round headed semi-circular niches flanking the central windows at ground and first floor level. In the centre of the top storey is a large pediment, carved by John Hunt of Northampton who some believe to have designed the whole building. According to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, whose book on Bedfordshire has an illustration of Hinwick, the carving is "robust, not delicate". the main staircase is by Daniel Wyman, the joiner mentioned in the building accounts, which show that John Woolston did the plasterwork. The Orlebar family still have the original building accounts. All the sash windows on the ground and first floors of the Queen Anne house have moulded surrounds and eighteen panes whilst on the second floor they have twelve panes. The Victorian wing dating from the 1860s by F.C.Penrose, a pupil of the renowned Victorian architect Edward Blore, has two storeys under a slate and tile roof. The entrance gates, hung on ashlar piers and separately listed Grade II, are original contemporary wrought iron gates by Thomas Warren who is also thought to have made the gates at St.Clare's College, Cambridge and at Hinwick Hall nearby. The Clock Tower was built at the same time as the house and has an inscription RO 1710. It has a hexagonal timber bell turret cupola with leaded roof and weathervane. The clock mechanism is still in situ. The stable block is 19th century and largely built in stone under slate roof, and contains contemporary stable boxes, hayracks and troughs";
- Queen Anne House layout: ground floor: front door; entrance hall; E and S drawing room; S and W library; E dining room; West Hall; maid's kitchen/butler's pantry;
- layout: first floor: gallery landing; six bedrooms; two dressing rooms; bathroom;
- layout: second floor: seven bedrooms; two bathrooms; airing cupboard; Victorian Wing: layout: ground floor: hallway; cloakroom; cellars; bathroom; E sitting room; E office or hallway; W kitchen/utility room; E study; E living room; rear hall; bar room; W dining hall; staff flat; back door;
- layout: first floor: landing; study; four bedrooms; bathroom; bedroom/sitting room; bedroom/dining room; kitchen; housekeeper's flat;
- grounds: courtyard; clock tower; walled garden; grove; dovecote; all weather riding area; stable block with workshop, garages, stabling, four horse standings, tackroom;
- North Turret Cottage with entrance hall, living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bathroom, two attics;
- West Turret Cottage with lobby, kitchen, bathroom, landing, two bedrooms;
- South Turret Cottage with kitchen, utility room, living room, bathroom, two bedrooms;
- Clock Tower and Temple: "from the courtyard west of the Queen Anne house, there are twin staircases leading up to a balustraded gallery, from which there is a door into the tower and steps up to the Clock Room with access to the original clock mechanism. Above the room is a hexagonal timber and leaded bell turret cupola with six window lights and surmounted by a wrought iron weathervane. To the south of the clocktower is a period stone Closet "thunderbox" known as The Temple, which used to house four lavatory seats - two for adults and two for children! - over a pit beneath. There used to be a decorated plasterwork/moulding on the interior but this was damaged when the roof failed and little remains. the roof has been releaded";
- photographs [colour]: exterior front and side; detail of Doric pilaster; front door; Orlebar crest over front door; bas-relief of Diana; empty rooms; view over fields; clock tower;
- site location map;
- site layout plan;
- floor plans not to scale;
- £2,750,000
- for earlier sale see Z449/1/8
Included is a cutting from The Times 23 Jan 2004 on the house by Marcus Binney