Chicheley Hall

Chicheley Hall, in Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, is an English country house built in the first quarter of the 18th century in the Baroque style.

An ancient manor house on the site belonged to the Pagnell family of Newport Pagnell, but was given by them to the church. Cardinal Wolsey gave it to Christ Church, Oxford, but it reverted to the Crown, and was acquired by a wool merchant, Anthony Cave, in 1545, who built a manor house in the form of a hollow square. On his death the house was left to his daughter Judith, who had married her cousin William Chester, son of Sir William Chester. Their only son Anthony was High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire for 1602 and created a baronet in 1620.

The house then descended in the Chester family to the time of the English Civil War, when it was shelled by Parliamentary forces and eventually demolished. The present Chicheley Hall was built in the early 1700s on the same site. All that remains of the old manor house today is one Jacobean over-mantel with termini caryatids, and some panelling in the 'new' Chicheley Hall.

The present hall was built between 1719 and 1723, with the interior fittings completed in 1725. The house was often attributed to the architect Thomas Archer, but has more recently been attributed to Francis Smith, who is thought to have designed it for Sir John Chester, the 4th baronet.

The principal facade of the house is of nine bays on three floors upon a raised basement; the central section of three bays projects. Massive fluted Corinthian pilasters flank the central three bays. These are repeated at each termination of the facade and again divide the second from the third bay of each wing that flanks the central projection. The facade is symmetrical, however the curve-topped windows of the central projection are taller than the flat-topped windows of the wings, thus uniformity at roof level is achieved by an upward curve to the central section from the wings. These motifs, examples of baroque architecture are exceedingly rare in Britain, where baroque was fashionable for a very brief period at the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th.

...
Wikipedia