New Work Wonder

High on a wooded Cotswold escarpment, commanding extensive views southwards across Gloucestershire to the Bristol Channel, sits a former Tudor hunting lodge transformed into a Georgian country house, complete with 750 acres of gardens and parkland. Another fine rural rest point on our journey south, this time courtesy of the National Trust.

Newark (‘New Work’) was originally built by Sir Nicolas Poynz. Important enough to be painted by Hans Holbein, he was one of those hardnosed courtiers who benefitted hugely from the reformation wrought by their all powerful patron Henry VIII. A novel building, designed to show off his newly acquired wealth and hunting domain, this original section was built with dressed stones from Kingswood monastery, an asset stripping process overseen by Poyntz as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire.

Over two centuries later, in the 1790’s, the Clutterbuck family added their bit of new work, a cleverly designed harmonious extension, complete with false windows to retain symmetry. They also landscaped the gardens and approach road in the fashionable romantic style of the day. Of exiled protestant Huguenot stock the Clutterbucks also added the huge mullioned window that floods the main staircase with light, emphasising elegant heraldic decoration in the process.

We had tea on the garden terrace, taking in the vista of rolling pastoral greenery, soaking up the sunshine while it lasted. Amusing to see and hear the resident peacocks wafting at will about the place, to everyone’s delight. Heading indoors we enjoyed an unhurried wander through the intriguing layers of Newark’s architectural evolution. It also reveals a comfortable modern domesticity, with eclectic art and ceramic collections filling the downstairs living rooms.

This element is the legacy of Texas architect Bob Parsons, who had served as a soldier in Europe during WW2. He fell in love with what had become a dilapidated unloved place inherited by the Trust in 1949 and in return for a peppercorn rent, he and his male partner cleverly restored the building to life during the last 30 years of the last century. As is so often the case in conservation matters our country owes a debt to enlightened foreigners who love and care for our neglected heritage more often than we sometimes do.