Building record 0454603000 - DANESFIELD HOUSE

Dimensions - Length 80m, Width 25m.
Plan Form - E shaped.
Illustration (B2).
At NGR (B6).
Buildings report dated April 1988 held at NMR (B11).
Grade II+. Mansion, now offices. Dated 1899-1901. By F.H. Romaine Walker for Mr. Robert Hudson, soap manufacturer, of Bache Hall, Cheshire. Dressed chalk, plain tile roofs, brick chimneys with groups of richly patterned shafts, lead rainwater heads with pierced geometric ornament. In Tudor style. Approximately E plan with central porch to state rooms in S. wing, former banquetting room and gatehouse in W. wing, and E. wing fronting former stable courtyard. 1950s wing attached to S.W. Battlemented parapets, stone mullion and transom windows with leaded lights. W. wing has gatehouse tower with moulded 4-centred arch and fan vault, battlemented oriel window, clock, and corner turrets. Remainder of wing is of one tall storey with one bay window to left and 4 to right. 2 2-storey gabled bays and 1950s wing project to right. Entrance courtyard has 2-storey porch to centre of S. range and hall with 3 tall bay windows to right. Simpler gatehouse to stable courtyard in E. wing. Stable ranges altered to offices c.1980, retaining Tuscan colonnade and spiral wooden staircase with conical tiled roof in N.W. corner. S. front has 5 3-storey bays to centre, flanked by 4-storey projecting towers and 2-storey outer bays. Centre bays have ground floor loggia with 4-centred moulded arches on Tuscan columns, articulated into bay rhythm 2: 7: 2 by piers with shell niches. Pierced parapet with cusped ornament. Bay windows to upper storeys and outer bays. Towers have stepped parapets, corner finials and 3-storey battlemented bay windows. Interior is Jacobethan, with some rooms remodelled 1920s in late C18 style. Great Hall has Jacobethan panelling with pilasters, screen with arched double doors, minstrels' gallery, and splendid hammerbeam roof with traceried spandrels and righly carved pendants. Roof is dated H 1901 over gallery. Circa 1940 stone fireplace in French medieval style. Below gallery is entrance lobby with panelling and carved overmantel to 4-centred stone fireplace. Panelled passage with ribbed plaster pendants to ceiling. Panelled Jacobethan board- room with internal porch, richly carved wooden overmantel and columns to fireplace, ribbed ceiling, and plaster frieze with copies of heraldic motifs dated ANM 1677. Adjacent dining room with marble fireplace in Adam style. S.W. room has delicate plaster ceiling in late C18 style, and late C18 white marble fireplace with low relief carvings of musical instruments. Grand banquetting room decorated 1920s with Ionic pilasters, plaster frieze with scrolls and trophies, grey marble fireplace, and large arched mirrors. Fine Jacobethan staircase has rusticated newel posts and pierced balustrading with foliage scrolls, beasts and heraldry. Triple arcade to landing. C17 and C18 style panelling in upper rooms, original ornamental tiles retained in some bathrooms (B5).



Danesfield House was first built probably during the mid 18th century, but was rebuilt in Georgian classical style after 1787 for Robert Scott. A chapel, designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, was added to the house some time after 1845. The estate was sold to Robert William Hudson, the son of soap entrepreneur Robert Spear Hudson, in 1897. The present Italian Renaissance style country house was built in 1899-1901 for Robert William Hudson by Romaine Walker. The house is set within formal terraced gardens which are thought to have been laid out between 1901 and 1903, possibly involving the landscape gardening company James Pulham and Son. (See Monument HOB UID 1537725). During the early part of the Second World War the house was used as a school. In 1941 it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry, became known as RAF Medmenham and specialized in photographic intelligence - the Joint Service Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) Unit housing the RAF photographic interpretation unit (PIU). In 1948 it became the Divisional Headquarters for the 90 Group RAF (Signals) and the house was used as officers' accomodation. In 1977 the house was sold to Carnation to become its corporate headquarters. It became a country house hotel in 1991 (B17 and B18).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.