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South bank, Kennet & Avon Canal · Wiltshire

The house on the Kennet

Feels like: Remains of the Day and The Turn of the Screw.

Map of the Marlborough and Savernake Forest area in Wiltshire, with a marker on the house's approximate location south of Marlborough.

A late-17th-century English country manor in pale honey-grey Bath limestone, on a south-facing slope running down to the Kennet & Avon Canal — which from the principal lawn reads as a serpentine ornamental lake. Savernake Forest rises behind, a wall of beech and oak.

Thirteen bays, central pediment, hipped slate roof with attic dormers, tall stone chimneys. Walled kitchen garden to the west; a single-storey Victorian conservatory added to the east. A long lime avenue brings the drive in from the lane.

Scale of Hatchlands Park, not Blenheim — decently large, not vast. Too many rooms to use, but it never feels grand. The lawn descends in two terraces to a ha-ha, and parkland of specimen oaks runs down to the water.

The first glimpse from the lane, through the lime tunnel of the drive, is the Turn of the Screw moment. The view from the breakfast-room terrace across the water is the Remains of the Day one.

Aerial view of the manor with the Kennet curving below and the lime avenue running off to the east.
Aerial
South facade of the manor seen from the far bank of the Kennet, with a stone ornamental bridge in the foreground.
South facade
Victorian glass conservatory attached to the east elevation, with pot plants on a wet flagstone terrace in light rain.
East conservatory
Cobbled stable yard with clock tower seen through autumn mist, smoke from a single chimney.
Stable yard, north side
Close view of the pedimented front door in Bath limestone, flanked by two clipped bay topiary in lead planters.
Front door
Interior point of view from a deep window seat with sash and shutters, looking out across mist on the river meadow at dawn.
Window seat, first floor