Cloverley Hall, Whitchurch, Shropshire — the seat of J. P. Heywood, Esq. (1862), designed W. E. Nesfield. Drawing from Eastlake, facing p. 340. Robert Furneaux Jordan explains the importance of Cloverley Hall, which he describes as "a quite fantastic essay in huge mullioned Tudor windows — virtually window-walls — gables and chimney stacks . . . Although vaguely medieval it is a complete break with the use, in domestic architecture, of that full ecclesiastic Gothic — the only way in which Pugin's generation could show their deference to the Middle Ages. Although so much larger and grander than the Red House it is a tribute to the vernacular of the English manor. As such it is a break with the immediate past, a forerunner of both Shaw and Lutyens. It is also a pointer to the fact that tlie new kind of patron would have liked an old yeoman's house if only it were possible to fit inside it all the kitchens, nurseries, gunrooms and stables that were the paraphernalia of modern life a century ago” (226).

Image scan and text by George P. Landow. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL.]

References

Eastlake, Charles L. A History of the Gothic Revival. London: Longmans, Green; N.Y. Scribner, Welford, 1972. [Copy in Brown University's Rockefeller Library]

Jordan, Robert Furneaux. Victorian Architecture. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1966.


Last modified 5 February 2008