My initial quick survey visit, to check previous survey data, revealed that a full new elemental survey was needed. The ruined Italianate mansion required a great deal of my time to construct as part of the English Heritage virtual build project. My photos demonstrate the complexity of the structures present on site.
In the early nineteenth century, Thomas Foley (VII) used John Nash to design the enormous North and South porticos. The final transformation of the mansion was undertaken by Samuel Daukes for the Wards in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1937 a great fire inflicted serious damage followed by forty years of decay and neglect.