Quarwood

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Quarwood
Quarwood
General information
TypeResidential
Architectural styleVictorian
Location Swell, Gloucestershire, England
Completed1859
Technical details
Structural systemBrick and stone
Floor count4
Design and construction
Architect(s) John Loughborough Pearson

Quarwood or Quar Wood is a Victorian manor near Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England. It was formerly owned by The Who's bassist John Entwistle.

Contents

Description

The Rhenish Gothic house is built on a hill in Lower Swell, [1] approached by a long driveway accessed from the A429 Stow Hill (the Fosse Way) and through an entrance with two stone pillars decorated with lion plinths. [2] The house, which includes a saddle roof and open loggia, [3] has 55 rooms. [4]

The main hallway features a cantilevered staircase with wrought-iron balustrade and oak handrail which leads to a galleried landing. A formal drawing room has an open fireplace with a timber surround. The Cotswold landscape is visible through picture windows, and formal gardens include terraces and a croquet lawn facing south toward the Dikler river valley. [2] When Entwistle bought the home, he installed two recording studios, one on the main floor and one on the top floor, and a bar with game rooms. Known for a macabre sense of humour, Entwistle kept skeletons in the master bedroom to frighten guests. [5]

The grounds enclose 42 acres, including parkland, fish ponds, paddocks, garages, woodlands and seven cottages. [2]

History

Crossroads of narrow road near Stow-on-the-Wold, looking towards Lower Swell and the town. Near Stow-on-the-Wold - geograph.org.uk - 5484.jpg
Crossroads of narrow road near Stow-on-the-Wold, looking towards Lower Swell and the town.

The house was designed by architect John Loughborough Pearson and built in 1856–59 for £8,000 (equivalent to £940,000in 2023) for Reverend Robert William Hippisley, who was the local parish priest [6] (rector) (1844–1899). The parish's lucrative farming and malting across its 12.7 km2 (5 sq mi) provided a then-record salary for that parish of £525 by 1870. [7] Pearson had previously designed Treberfydd in Brecknockshire for Robert Raikes (1818–1901), Hippisley's brother-in-law and grandson of Robert Raikes, a wealthy Anglican minister who increased junior education during and after the Industrial Revolution through expanding a nationwide charity for Sunday Schools. Pearson had completed restoration work on St Edward's Church.

Quarwood was extensively remodeled in 1954–58 by Sir Denys Lowson. John Entwistle and his wife Alison bought the property as a weekend retreat in 1976, and Entwistle occupied the house until his death in 2002. In 2004 his son Christopher offered the house for sale at a price of £3.75 million (equivalent to £7,270,000in 2023). The house is currently owned by Piet Pulford. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Cotswolds is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat that is quarried for the golden-coloured Cotswold stone. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties: mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. The highest point is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft (330 m), just east of Cheltenham. The predominantly rural landscape contains stone-built villages, towns, stately homes and gardens featuring the local stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stow-on-the-Wold</span> English market town in Gloucestershire

Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, on top of an 800-foot hill at the junction of main roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way (A429), which is of Roman origin. The town was founded by Norman lords to absorb trade from the roads converging there. Fairs have been held by royal charter since 1330; a horse fair is still held on the edge of town nearest to Oddington in May and October each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Entwistle</span> English musician; bassist for The Who (1944–2002)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cotswold District</span> Non-metropolitan district in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northleach</span> Market town in England

Northleach is a market town and former civil parish, now in parish Northleach with Eastington, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England. The town is in the valley of the River Leach in the Cotswolds, about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Cirencester and 11 miles (18 km) east-southeast of Cheltenham. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,854, the same as Northleach built-up-area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bledington</span> Human settlement in England

Bledington is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about four miles southeast of Stow-on-the-Wold and six miles southwest of Chipping Norton. The population of the civil parish in 2014 was estimated to be 490.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Swell</span> Human settlement in England

Lower Swell is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Swell, in the Cotswold district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is located at the River Dikler, one mile from Stow-on-the-Wold. The village has "finest countryside, a tranquil village green and plenty of mellow stone cottages". The village church is dedicated to St. Mary. In 1931 the parish had a population of 360.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donnington, Gloucestershire</span> Human settlement in England

Donnington is a small village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, near the Roman Fosse Way in the Cotswold District Council area of south west England. It is situated on a hill a mile and a half north of Stow-on-the-Wold, of which until 1894 it formed a detached hamlet, so that the north transept in the parish church was reserved for the parish. There are fine views over the Evenlode valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Edward's Church, Stow-on-the-Wold</span> Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, England

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Daylesford is a small, privately owned village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Adlestrop, in the Cotswold district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England, on the border with Oxfordshire. It is situated just south of the A436 two miles east of Stow-on-the-Wold and five miles west of Chipping Norton. The village is on the north bank of the small River Evenlode. This area falls within the Cotswold Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so designated in 1966. In 1931 the parish had a population of 82.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbotswood, Gloucestershire</span> Historic site in Gloucestershire, England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lechlade Manor</span> Grade II listed house in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Lechlade Manor in Lechlade, Gloucestershire, England, is a Victorian country house built for George Milward, a lawyer, by John Loughborough Pearson. Primarily an ecclesiastical architect, working on over 200 church buildings in his fifty-year career, the manor represents one of Pearson's rare forays into secular building. Dating from 1872 to 1873, Lechlade was subsequently sold to the Sisters of St Clotilde and operated as a convent for much of the 20th century. In the 1990s, it was converted back to a private residence, with some enabling development in the grounds. Lechlade Manor is a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Talbot, Stow-on-the-Wold</span> Public house in Stow-on-the Wold, Gloucestershire, England

The Talbot, formerly known as The Talbot Hotel, is a public house in the Market Square in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England. The structure, which was originally a coaching inn and later served as the local corn exchange as well as the main hotel in the town, is a Grade II listed building.

References

  1. Hitchcock, Henry-Russell (1989). Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Pelican History of Art (6th ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 253. ISBN   978-0-300053203.
  2. 1 2 3 Jackson, Penny (28 April 2004). "Rocker's retreat". The Independent . Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  3. "Quar Wood, Gloucestershire". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  4. Charlesworth, Chris (4 July 2019). "Why John Entwistle was the greatest rock bassist of all time". MusicRadar.
  5. "The relics of a rock star life". The Daily Telegraph. 19 April 2005. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  6. Rees, Paul (2020). The Ox: The Last of the Great Rock Stars: The Authorised Biography of The Who's John Entwistle. Little, Brown and Company. p. 181. ISBN   978-1-472129376.
  7. Wilson, J. M. (1870–72). "Stow-on-the-Wold". Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales . London: A. Fullarton and Co. via A Vision of Britain through Time.
  8. "Quarwood". Genealogy Pages of Michael Allan Hippisley Matthews. Retrieved 31 March 2012.

51°55′13″N1°43′40″W / 51.920366°N 1.727901°W / 51.920366; -1.727901