5 bedroom detached house

An Architectural Masterpiece

Description

Described in Country Life as “A West Country ziggurat”, The Pavilion is a spectacular transformation of a contemporary modern house, to create a striking home built in classical architectural style. The owners, along with renowned architect William Bertram (best known for his work for The Prince of Wales) have designed a country house of great elegance, using the finest of materials throughout. It stands on a steeply rising hillside, above the site of one of England’s lost country houses, Redlynch Park. Set over three levels, it appears to ‘cascade’ down the hillside, taking advantage of outstanding, panoramic views over undulating countryside.

Built in the style of an 18th century villa, the main front (northern) elevation, of hand-made Bavarian brick with lime mortar, has a balustraded parapet and a projecting stone portico, with the central pediment sitting on stone arches, rather than columns. The trio of windows that flank the front portico, with alternating triangular and segmental pediments, are emulated throughout the house. The south elevation has decorative arched windows and a central portico with widely spaced columns, allowing each level access to the terraces and beautiful gardens.

The descending levels are built from Hartham Park stone, from nearby Corsham; the lower level is laid similarly to dry-stone walling, with no visible pointing.

The house is approached through the private pillared entrance of Redlynch Park, along 300 yards of estate drive. The Pavilion’s private gravel drive, via electric gates, then sweeps down to a large parking area in front of the house and continues to the garaging beneath.

Ground Floor
The front door opens into a palatial entrance hall with a beautiful floor of pure-white Carrara marble paviours edged with pale grey. There is an easy flow of rooms from the hall, which is lit by a spectacular external roof-lantern. All the rooms are characterised by high ceilings and elegant proportions with fine cornice detail; the drawing room has a particularly handsome chimney piece.

The curving staircase has an ebony handrail with mother-of-pearl inlay and turns into the library and a bold vista towards an arched Venetian window. Beneath this vista is a beautiful Italian marble floor in the form of a sundial, in red and cream marble. This open area leads to all five bedrooms with their adjoining bathrooms and dressing areas, as well as the more functional aspects of the house. These include the laundry, boot room, store rooms, plant room, and internally to the integrated double garage.

Garden Floor
The garden floor boasts a spectacular indoor swimming pool overlooking, and opening onto, the gardens. Light streams into this area via floor-to-ceiling glass, imperceptibly set into the floor and the soffit, to create an alfresco feel. Surrounding the pool is Portland stone paving, inset with diamonds of black slate. This level is complemented by changing rooms, a therapy room and a bar.

An attractive period outbuilding, formerly the original engine house for Redlynch Park, has been renovated to create a cinema room with cloakroom, as well as a gardener’s loo, store rooms and a boiler room. A generator is hidden behind this building.

Gardens
Landscaping has been key to provide a sensational private setting worthy of The Pavilion’s quality and style. The award winning landscape gardener, Simon Johnson, has cleverly created the original vision of The Pavilion as a house in the woods, by blurring the boundaries as to where the garden ends and the woodland begins.

The planting and landscaping has been carefully considered to enhance both the open flat areas of lawn and the sloping banks. A wide variety of specimen trees and shrubs provide colour and interest throughout the year. Balustraded parapet terraces circumference the southern levels of the house, merging The Pavilion to its grounds and providing excellent areas for outdoor entertaining, with breathtaking views across to the Dorset Downs, up to 50 miles in the distance. There is hardly a building in sight to disturb this vast panorama, in which the horizon is visible from one side to the other. The terraces outside the bedrooms are treated very simply, with panels of lawn as settings for statues.

Grass paths provide tours through these beautiful gardens, where the land culminates in the great lawn, a panel of mown grass surrounded by beech hedges. Steps lead to a smaller lawn by the former engine house, set within a grass bank, which in spring transforms into an auditorium of daffodils.

Location

The Pavilion stands within the grounds of Redlynch Park, just two miles outside the highly sought-after and reputable market town of Bruton, with its artisan cafés and restaurants, such as Osip, The Chapel and Matt’s Kitchen. In addition, there is the renowned Hauser and Wirth Art Gallery with the Durslade more day-to-day amenities, such as a doctor’s surgery and small supermarket. Nearby Wincanton offers a wider range of shops and large supermarkets.

The Newt Hotel is just under 4 miles from The Pavilion and Babington House is 16 miles away.

The area is home to a number of popular schools, including Hazlegrove, Kings Bruton, Bruton School for Girls and Sexey’s School, as well as Leweston and the Sherborne and Millfield Schools, which lie slightly further afield.

Square Footage: 9,386 sq ft



Directions

The beautiful spa town of Bath is approximately 28 miles north and Castle Cary, about 7 miles to the west, has a train station, with journey times of approximately 90 minutes to London Paddington.

In addition, there is a direct train from Bruton to Waterloo in just over 2 ½ hours, and Bruton to Paddington (with one change) in just over 2 hours.