Quarwood | |
---|---|
General information | |
Type | Residential |
Architectural style | Victorian |
Location | Swell, Gloucestershire, England |
Completed | 1859 |
Technical details | |
Structural system | Brick and stone |
Floor count | 4 |
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.
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]
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]
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.
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.
John Alec Entwistle was an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band the Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member with formal musical training and also provided backing and occasional lead vocals. Entwistle was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990.
John Loughborough Pearson was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency unrivalled in his generation. He worked on at least 210 ecclesiastical buildings in England alone in a career spanning 54 years.
Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region and range of hills. The council is based in the district's largest town of Cirencester. The district also includes the towns of Chipping Campden, Fairford, Lechlade, Moreton-in-Marsh, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold and Tetbury, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.
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.
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.
Guiting Power is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire, England. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 296.
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.
Wauldby is a region in the Yorkshire Wolds within the civil parish of Welton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It contains the gentrified hamlet around Wauldby Manor Farm, and a few other minor dwellings including Little Wauldby Farm.
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.
St Edward's Church is a medieval-built Church of England parish church, serving Stow-on-the-Wold ('Stow'), Gloucestershire.
Icomb Place is a medieval manor house on the edge of the village of Icomb, near Stow on the Wold in Gloucestershire. The word "place" in this context is thought to be a precursor of "palace".
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.
Abbotswood is a country house and estate near Lower Swell in Gloucestershire, England. It is a grade II listed building and estate, of medieval origins and with remodelling and garden work to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens from 1901 onwards.
Robert Raikes' House is an historic 16th century timber-framed town house at 36–38 Southgate Street, Gloucester. It is now used as a public house called the Robert Raikes Inn.
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.
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.