Chillington Hall is a fine red-brick Georgian house set on a remote hilltop site in the former Forest of Brewood.
The Chillington estate has remained in hands of the Giffard family since the 12th century but the present house dates entirely from the 18th century, when the property passed to a junior Catholic branch of the family.
The house was built in two stages.
In 1724 Peter Giffard built the three-storeyed south wing which stands to the east of the entrance range. This was probably designed by Francis Smith of Warwick (or his brother William), and represented the rebuilding of one side of the existing 16th century courtyard house.
The rest of the house was replaced in 1786 - 89 when Thomas Giffard commissioned the celebrated architect Sir John Soane to rebuild the entrance range and north wing. Soane made his name creating country houses in a personalized variant of the neoclassical style but is most famous for his later public buildings, particulary the Bank of England.
The house has seen little change since that time and today it is an important example Soane's earlier work.
Chillington Hall is approached by a long straight avenue.
The entrance front is dominated by a vast Ionic portico of local sandstone but Soane's plain red brick façade was originally intended to be stuccoed.
The front of the south wing of 1724 is more elaborate and has the decorative mannerisms found in a number of houses created by the Smith brothers.
The visitor enters through the bare Hall, supported by Ionic columns, and passes through into the magnificent top-lit Saloon. This grand room was built by Soane within the walls of the hall of the previous house and was originally intended as a Chapel. The huge room, one of the most impressive of any late-18th century English house, has high bare walls and a lantern rising out of a dome resting on pendentives. The unusual chimneypiece is said to have been made from armorial fragments from the previous house.
After Thomas Giffard's marriage in 1788 funds were seriously reduced and the remainder of Soane's rooms - the Drawing Room and Dining Room in the main block and the Library in the north wing - do not exhibit the architect's great talent for organising internal spaces.
Most of the rather meagre decoration in these rooms was carried out after Thomas Giffard's death in 1827. The contents of Soane's rooms include a pair of Grand Tour portraits of Thomas Giffard and his father by Pompeo Batoni and a bust by Christopher Hewetson.
The visitor also views two interiors in the south wing.
The comfortable Morning Room, with its elaborate plaster ceiling of 1730 - 40, has a more intimate atmosphere than Soane's spacious rooms and the Staircase Hall has lively plasterwork and a splendid wooden staircase created by the Smith brothers.
Chillington Hall is set in a fine park, created by 'Capability' Brown in the 1760s.
Invisible from the house is one of the largest lakes created by Brown, with a sham bridge to impound the waters. A real bridge was later built by James Paine.
The grounds contains three temples - the Grecian Temple thought to be by Soane. There also are extensive woodland walks.
Chillington Hall Opening TimesOpen: Easter,May & Aug Bank Hols: Sun & Mon; July: Sun; Aug: Wend-Fri & Sun . Times: 14:00-17:00
Tel: 01902 850236 Chillington Hall Website
