Charles Barry - Country House Work

Country House Work

A major focus of his career was the remodelling of older country houses, his first major commission was the transformation of Henry Holland's Trentham Hall, Staffordshire (1834–40) it was remodelled in the Italianate style with a large tower (a feature Barry often included in his country houses), Barry also designed the Italianate gardens, with parterres and fountains, largely demolished in 1912, only a small portion of the house consisting of the porte-cochère, with a curving corridor and the stables are still standing, although the gardens are undergoing a restoration, additionally the belvedere from the top of the tower survives as a folly at Sandon Hall.

At Bowood House, Wiltshire, (1834–38), for Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne he added the tower, made alterations to the gardens and designed the Italianate entrance lodge, also for the same client he designed the Lansdowne Monument (1845). Walton house followed in (1835–39), Walton-on-Thames, again he used an Italianate style with a three storey tower over the entrance porte-cochère demolished 1973. Then in (1835–38) he remodeled Sir Roger Pratt's Kingston Lacy, the interiors being his work, as well as the exterior being re-clad in stone.

Highclere Castle, Hampshire, (c.1842-50) with its large tower was remodelled in Elizabethan style for the Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, externally the building was completely altered, the plain Georgian building virtually rebuilt, although little of the interior is by Barry, his patron dying in 1849, and Thomas Allom completed it in 1861. At Duncombe Park Yorkshire, he designed new wings added (1843–46), these were in the English Baroque style of the main block. At Harewood House he remodelled (1843–50) the John Carr exterior adding an extra floor to the end pavilions and replacing the portico on the south front with Corinthian pilasters, some of the Robert Adam interiors were remodeled, the dining room being entirely by Barry, and created the formal terraces and parterres surrounding the house.

He remodelled Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, Scotland (1844–48) in Scots Baronial Style for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland for whom he had remodelled Trentham Hall, due to a fire in the early 20th century little of Barry's interiors survive at Dunrobin, the gardens with their fountains and parterres are also by Barry. Canford Manor, Dorset,was extended in a Tudor Gothic style (1848–52), including a large entrance tower, the most unusual interior is the Nineveh porch, built to house Assyrian sculptures from the eponymous palace, this has an interior decorated with Assyrian motifs.

James Paine's Shrubland Park was remodeled in (1849–54) with its Italianate tower, entrance porch, the lower hall with Corinthian columns and glass domes and the impressive formal gardens based on Italian Renaissance gardens, including a 70 foot high series of terraces linked by a grand flight of steps linking terraces, with an open temple structure at the top, originally there were cascades of water either side of the staircase, the main terrace is at the center of a string of gardens nearly a mile in length. He remodeled Gawthorpe Hall an Elizabethan house situated south-east of the small town of Padiham, in the borough of Burnley, Lancashire, England, originally a pele tower, built in the 14th century as a defense against the invading Scots. Around 1600 a Jacobean mansion was dovetailed around the pele but today's hall is re-design of the house, using the original Elizabethan style (1850–52).

His last major remodelling work was Cliveden which had been the seat of the Earl of Orkney from 1696 till 1824. Barry's remodelling was again on behalf of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. Here he built a new central block after the previous building was burnt down (1850–51), rising to three floors in the Italianate Style, the lowest floor had arch headed windows, the upper two floors have giant Ionic pilasters, he also designed the parterre's below the house, little of Barry's interiors survived later remodeling.