History

Here is a treasure indeed, an exquisite late eighteenth century smallish country house. By an almost unknown young architect, lived in by the same family and scarcely altered since the day it was built. Samuel Saxon was a pupil of chambers who when he was commissioned in 1791 by Sir William Wake, was thirty-four years old with as yet no major building to his name.

What he produced at Courteenhall on a site chosen by Humphrey Repton who was simultaneously laying out the park, was a restrained neo-classical house with three fronts, that on the entrance side somewhat austere with its Tuscan columned doorway, but the garden front and lighter and more relaxed, with a beautifully proportioned three bay pediment and the columns a gentler and more delicate Ionic. Inside all is coolness and serenity. The style is classical throughout both the entrance hall and the dining room have screens of column, Doric and Corinthian respectively (Courteenhall is a splendid place for studying the orders), and there is a ravishing apsed library with curved doors and columns with palm frond capitals as if deliberately to dispel any suggestion of pomposity elsewhere. But in fact no such suggestion is made the scale is small enough to ensure that the atmosphere remains undemandingly domestic. The staircase, lit by an oval and domes skylight, has its original wall decoration of simulated marble, as good as any I know.

Courteenhall is occasionally open to the public but as always check the opening arrangements in advance. Once there don’t leave without looking at the stables. Built around 1750 and thus some forty years older than the house they are conceived on the grand Palladian scale and make a fascinating contrast with the house. There is also in the grounds the School House of about 1680, containing its original furnishings and the village church of St Peter and St Paul has some memorable tombs.

Extract taken from: “The Architecture of Southern England” by Lord Norwich

	If you wish to read more about the history of the Wake Family and Courteenhall, copies of “The Wakes of Northamptonshire” written by Professor Peter Gordon, are available from The Estate Office. Price £18 including p&p. To order a copy please apply to Linda Langman via the ‘Contact Us’ section.