Details
SS 90 SE BROADCLYST KILLERTON PARK
2/97 Killerton House and Ha-Ha
- approximately 20 metres
11.11.52 in front of Entrance
- II*
Country House. 1680 datestone only survives of early house of the Aclands. Present
main block 1778 John Johnson as 'a temporary residence' for Sir Thomas Acland.
Enlarged 1830, internal refurbishments 1900 by Prothero & Philpott of Cheltenham and
new entrance hall 1924 by Randall Wells. Stone (Johnson's work possibly Coade
stone), stuccoed with slate hipped roofs concealed behind parapets. Mainly 2
storeys, except for music room 1830, main entrance and study/billiards room 1900
(now conference room) which are single storeyed.
Simple 2 storey block of 1778, 5 bays wide 7 bays deep on left.
Front: 5 bays, the central bay projecting slightly with a round-headed doorway (with
original fanlight and C20 doors) under a pediment with modillions and frieze and 2
Tuscan columns; windows with two 6-pane, hornless timber sashes throughout all under
blind boxes; some of the sashes appear to be original. Platband; parapet. Left-
hand side elevation of 7 bays, details as front without break forward. An early C19
extension continues behind slightly set back from the plane of Johnson's range,
asymmetrical fenestration, with a slightly projecting bay containing a round-headed
sash window above, and round-headed garden door below, with margin panes and
fanlight. An iron balcony is here supported by open-work iron supports. C20
offices etc. to rear. In circa 1830 the ground-floor Music Room was extended (the
first of a series of post C18 projections to the right-hand elevation) in the form
of a polygonal bay, each of the three faces with a round-headed sash window (9 panes
above, 6 below). Prothero and Philpott's study/billiards room was added in 1900
forming an L-shaped plan: a rectangular chamber, 3 bays to the front, 2 to the side,
round-headed sash windows (as to Music Room) all under a parapet with little
pilaster buttresses. Between this and the Music Room (in the inner angle of the L-
shaped plan) is Randall Well's Entrance Hall, polygonal, 3 bays; a large moulded
round-headed doorway to the central bay, a 2-light square-headed sash window to each
of the flanking bays.
Interior: the most important rooms are those of Johnson and Randall Wells, although
the C19 work is of considerable merit. Most of Johnson's work was remodelled in
1900. Surviving intact is the corridor (formerly the entrance corridor), a sequence
of 3 domes divided by large, plain transverse arches; entrances at either end with
large fanlights; panelled, mahogany side doors with deep, panelled reveals. Also
his is the plaster frieze in the dining room (formerly the Great Parlour) and the
wooden fluted columns there with composite capitals which flank the entrance to the
library. Music Room, remodelled circa 1830 with 2 scagliola columns with Ionic
capitals flanking the organ of 1807 by William Gray. Other rooms completely
reworked in 1900 with replica C18 fire surrounds and carton pierre ceilings by
Jackson & Son (who possessed Robert Adam's original mouldings). Randall Well's work
in the Entrance Hall consists of plain pillars with chunky capitals, and the
internal supports, similarly treated, to window lintels.
Ha-ha of large rubble stones across the angle of the entrance front.
Sources: especially valuable Lady Anne Acland, Killerton (The National Trust, 1983).
Also Nancy Briggs, 'Woolverstone Hall : Some reflections on the domestic
architecture of John Johnson (1738-1814); Procs.Suffolk Institute for Archaeology
and History, XXXIV, part 1, (1977). Colvin, Dictionary of British Architects 1954
p.323.
Listing NGR: SS9734900089
