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The house was built for Thomas
Windham about 1620, and enlarged in 1674-87 and again in 1750. The
original part of the house is the south range (shown
here). It is of brick with stone dressings and not large; but it
has the lively projections and recessions of the Jacobean style.. There
are seven bays, the middle one with a square porch projection, the angle
ones with canted bay windows. The house is only two stories high, with
large mullioned and transomed windows. ... The front ends in a tall
parapet, and on the porch and bays balustrading with the words GLORIA DEO
IN EXCELSIS in cut-out 'Grotesque' letters. There are not many houses that
have this motif. ... On the balustrade small supporter figures. The
chimneystacks are of three polygonal shafts each with star tops. The house
of c.1620 was only one room deep. ...
The house is an exact contemporary of Blickling
Hall, 7 miles away,
with many similarities.
In the later 17th century a substantial west wing was added to the house
in the plainer style of that period. Picture here. |
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Click on
photos to enlarge
The porch has Tuscan columns on
strapwork plinths and supporting block entablatures. Coats of arms of Sir
John Windham and his son Thomas, who built the house, and their respective
wives. The Windhams came originally from Wymondham, south of Norwich.
To the east of the house a service range was built in 1749. At the front
it originally had an open colonnade but this was filled in in 1825 with
gabled pavilions and Gothic windows. |
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