Cronkhill

Image: © Philip Halling Taken: 23 Jun 2016

Cronkhill is part of the Attingham Estate which is owned by the National Trust. This Italianate villa was built by the famous architect, John Nash, in 1802. It is a tenanted property, which is only open to the public on selected days each year. As can be seen at present it is under scaffolding and undergoing restoration. The house is a Grade I listed building. Historic England description House. 1802, by John Nash, incorporating smaller C17 and C18 house. Stuccoed brick lined as ashlar with grey sandstone dressings; hipped slate roofs. Italianate style; rectangular plan with circular tower to north- east and square tower to south-west. 2 storeys with 3-storey towers. Plinth, deep eaves with paired brackets; integral brick stacks to towers. Glazing bar sashes, round-arched to first floor. Central block of 2 bays with one bay returning to left; first-floor arched window and 3 ground- floor 15-pane sashes to front; round-arched loggia of 6 x 4 bays on 2 steps with chamfered square piers, moulded dentil cornice, and balustraded parapet. Tower to right with 3 round-arched ground-floor windows to front, and in first floor to front and right; string to second floor with oeils- de-boeuf at front and back and blind oeil-de-boeuf to right, and pyramidal roof with globe finial and weathervane. Right-hand return front: 2 bays; projecting ground floor with moulded dentil cornice to balustraded parapet; recessed arched niche to left with Roman (?) amphora; depressed arch to right to porch with groin vault springing from moulded imposts, niches to left and right, and 4 flush-panelled door (top panels glazed) with flush-panelled side-lights, moulded architrave and cornice, and depressed-arched fanlight. South-west tower with ground-floor 15-pane sash, first-floor round-arched glazing bar sash, and second-floor 8-pane sash. 2 round-arched sashes at rear. Service wing to south: C17 with C18 wing at rear and circa 1802 refacing to east. Timber framed, extended in red brick to west and refaced and eaves raised to east; slate roofs. T-plan. 2 storeys and 2 storeys and gable-lit attic. Central brick ridge stack and external brick end stack to wing. Framing: square panels, 5 from sole- plate to wall-plate; short straight corner braces. East front: 5 bays; round-arched glazing bar sashes. Rear wing: south front: first-floor glazing bar sash; 2 ground-floor segmental-headed glazing bar sashes (that to right partly blocked) flanking central segmental-headed 6-panelled door. Earlier photographs of the house show painted imitation oeils-de-boeuf windows to the top storey of the tower, now painted over. Interior not inspected, but known to be of interest; despite the tower there are no circular rooms within except at the top. Cronkhill was built for Francis Walford, Lord Berwick's estate agent at Attingham, whose monument stands in Atcham churchyard (q.v.). The design was exhibited at the RA in 1802 as a "Villa in Shropshire". Its importance is as the first Italianate villa and the progenitor of much C19 house building, and also its place in the Picturesque movement, showing influence from the paintings of Claude Lorraine and Poussin. A drawing probably by Nash and now in Sir John Soane's museum shows the house without stacks and with a rebuilt service wing with tower to left. B.o.E., p.116; Terence Davis, The Architecture of John Nash, Studio (1960), Pp.23 and 36-7; J. Summerson, The Life and Work of John Nash. Architect, London (1980), p.42. Source: https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1176915

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