Lost Heritage

Location		Coleshill
Year demolished		1952
Reason		Fire
See all images:		Gallery
<< Back to the main list

In September 1952, a painter working on Coleshill House accidentally ignited the roof timbers with a blowlamp. The resulting fire raged for two days, despite the efforts of fourteen fire brigades and more than twenty fire engines. Although many of the contents were rescued, the building was gutted and subsequently demolished. The tragedy was particularly acute because Coleshill was not simply another distinguished country house. It was one of the earliest and most accomplished expressions of classical domestic architecture in England, a building which had helped establish the architectural principles that would dominate country-house design for much of the following century.

For nearly two hundred years, Coleshill had also enjoyed the distinction of being regarded as a masterpiece by Inigo Jones. The attribution was sufficiently persuasive for successive generations of architectural historians to accept it, although the building was principally the work of another architect, Sir Roger Pratt. Its architectural significance, however, was scarcely diminished by the correction.

A new house for the Restoration age

The Coleshill estate was purchased in around 1626 by Sir Henry Pratt, a prosperous London merchant and alderman, who was created a baronet in 1641. Following his death in 1647, the property passed to his son, Sir George Pratt, who began planning a new residence to replace the existing manor house.

An initial building was begun near the village, but the project underwent a fundamental revision following the involvement of Sir George's cousin, Roger Pratt. Having spent much of the 1640s travelling in continental Europe, including an extended stay in Italy, Roger had developed an understanding of classical architecture unusual among English gentlemen of his generation. According to later family testimony, the existing scheme was abandoned and construction began again on a new site further up the hill, where the house would command extensive views over the surrounding countryside.

Inigo Jones, then nearing the end of his life, was consulted over aspects of the design, particularly the ceilings, but the evidence points to Roger Pratt as the principal architect. Construction began around 1650 and proceeded intermittently until 1662, when the final work on the great staircase was completed.

Coleshill consequently occupied an important position in the transition between the architecture of the early Stuart period and the more fully developed classical country house of the Restoration. Although begun during the Commonwealth, its completion coincided with the return of Charles II and the renewed enthusiasm for continental fashions that characterised the later seventeenth century.

The emergence of the classical country house

The architectural distinction of Coleshill lay as much in its planning as in its elevations. Constructed in finely jointed limestone ashlar, the house formed a compact rectangular block, approximately 124 feet long and 62 feet deep. Its two principal storeys rose above a basement, while an attic was contained within the hipped roof. The nine-bay entrance front was rigorously symmetrical, its regular windows and restrained ornament establishing a compositional order that contrasted with the irregular plans and varied rooflines of many earlier English country houses.

Yet this simplicity was carefully calculated rather than austere. The widely projecting eaves were supported by an elaborate modillion cornice, while eight tall, symmetrically arranged chimney stacks rose above the roof. At its centre, a cupola provided access to a balustraded roof platform, creating an elevated viewpoint across the park and surrounding countryside. The combination of severe classical walls with a richly articulated skyline gave Coleshill an architectural character quite distinct from the more emphatically ornamented houses of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.

The arrangement reflected Pratt's familiarity with continental architecture, particularly the compact, symmetrical residences he had encountered during his travels. It also demonstrated the influence of Jones, whose Banqueting House at Whitehall and Queen's House at Greenwich had established a new architectural vocabulary of proportion, restraint and classical order.

Coleshill was, however, more than a provincial interpretation of Jones's work. Pratt adapted these principles to the requirements of English domestic life, creating an influential model in which classical regularity could coexist with the practical organisation of a substantial country household.

The house employed a double-pile plan, with rooms arranged in two ranges between its principal elevations. Rather than retaining the rambling sequence of spaces characteristic of many older houses, Pratt established a more ordered arrangement around a central hall. This contained the great staircase, transforming the traditional entrance hall into an impressive architectural space through which visitors were introduced to the principal apartments.

The staircase was particularly celebrated. Rising in two flights, with elaborately carved balustrades and richly treated surrounding walls, it provided a ceremonial focus for the interior. The principal rooms were embellished with decorative plaster ceilings and panelling, their sophistication providing a deliberate contrast to the comparative restraint of the exterior.

Pratt's influence and the English classical tradition

Coleshill was an important step in the development of the compact classical country house which became increasingly familiar after the Restoration. Its closest successor was Pratt's own Kingston Lacy in Dorset, constructed for Sir Ralph Bankes between 1663 and 1665.

Although similar in overall conception, Kingston Lacy represented a further development in planning. There Pratt increased the depth of the house, producing a triple-pile arrangement and separating the principal staircase from the central hall. The comparison demonstrates how Coleshill formed part of an evolving approach to the organisation of domestic space, rather than an isolated architectural experiment.

The preference for rectangular plans, balanced elevations and carefully ordered interiors subsequently became central to English country-house design. Later buildings, including Belton House in Lincolnshire, reflected aspects of the architectural tradition which Pratt had helped establish, although such similarities should not necessarily be understood as evidence of direct imitation.

Coleshill was therefore significant not merely for its classical appearance but for its contribution to a broader transformation in the relationship between architectural form and domestic planning. It offered an alternative to the great halls, projecting wings and complex rooflines of the preceding century, anticipating the more compact and regular country houses of the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Changing tastes and an architectural reputation

Following Sir George Pratt's death in 1673, Coleshill eventually passed through marriage to the Pleydell family and subsequently became associated with the Earls of Radnor. During the eighteenth century, the house acquired an exceptional architectural reputation, strengthened by the belief that it was an essentially unaltered work of Inigo Jones.

A commemorative tablet erected in 1748 attributed the building to Jones, an identification subsequently repeated in the fifth volume of *Vitruvius Britannicus*, published in 1771. At a time when Jones was increasingly revered as the great pioneer of English classical architecture, the attribution considerably enhanced Coleshill's standing.

Lord Burlington, the influential champion of Palladian architecture, was consulted about the proposed repairs and expressed admiration for the house, particularly its ceilings. However, archival research by Karen Fielder, published in the National Trust's Historic Houses and Collections Annual in 2012, has demonstrated that the substantial repairs undertaken during the 1740s and 1750s owed relatively little to Burlington, with the architect Richard Kittermaster and other craftsmen and advisers playing a more significant role.

The building also underwent changes which challenge its longstanding reputation as an untouched seventeenth-century masterpiece. Sash windows replaced the earlier casements, while successive owners considered further alterations to meet changing expectations of comfort and fashion. Around 1800, Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, second Earl of Radnor, proposed substantial modifications to the interiors, including the celebrated staircase, drawing upon contemporary French architectural examples. Not all these schemes were implemented, but they demonstrate that Coleshill remained a living country house rather than an architectural monument preserved unchanged.

The park was similarly transformed. The second Earl diverted the village road, removed cottages and altered the course of the River Cole to improve the setting and views from the house. During the nineteenth century, the third Earl of Radnor continued the improvement of the wider estate, including the reconstruction of parts of Coleshill village and the creation of an innovative model farm in 1852.

A secret wartime headquarters

Coleshill acquired an unexpected role during the Second World War. In 1940 the estate was requisitioned by the War Department and became the headquarters and principal training establishment of the Auxiliary Units, a secret organisation intended to operate behind enemy lines in the event of a German invasion.

Its extensive grounds, outbuildings and relative isolation made the estate particularly suitable for clandestine training. Between 1940 and 1944, hundreds of recruits were instructed in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, while specially constructed facilities, including underground bunkers, were concealed within the surrounding landscape.

The owners, sisters Mary and Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, remained in the house during this period. Katherine had already established herself as a pioneering studio potter, operating a pottery at the village mill and developing the distinctive ash glazes for which she became known.

In 1946, the estate was sold to Ernest Cook, a businessman and philanthropist whose acquisition included an undertaking that the property would eventually pass to the National Trust. Coleshill therefore appeared to have secured a future at a time when many comparable country houses were facing uncertain prospects.

Destruction and architectural legacy

The fire of September 1952 brought those expectations to an abrupt end. Beginning in the roof during renovation work, the flames spread rapidly through the building, destroying the interiors which had survived three centuries of changing ownership and architectural taste. The shell was subsequently considered dangerous and was demolished.

The destruction removed one of the most accomplished examples of seventeenth-century English classicism. Coleshill's distinction lay not in the novelty of its individual elements, but in the refinement with which Roger Pratt combined them. The severe simplicity of its ashlar elevations, relieved by carefully proportioned windows, contrasted with the elaborate silhouette of its hipped roof, tall chimney stacks and central cupola. Drawing on continental classical principles while retaining a distinctly English domestic character, Coleshill represented an important stage in the development of the restrained, compact country house that would become increasingly influential during the later seventeenth century.

Although the mansion disappeared, parts of the estate survive, including the imposing gate piers, clock house, dovecote and service buildings. The nineteenth-century model farm has also been retained and adapted by the National Trust, while the footprint of the lost mansion remains identifiable within the landscape.

Coleshill's reputation had long been shaped by the belief that it represented the achievement of Inigo Jones. The restoration of Roger Pratt to his rightful position as principal architect has made the house no less significant. Instead, its history provides a clearer understanding of how classical architecture was adapted to the requirements of the English country house, and how the work of individual architects contributed to a profound change in domestic architecture. Specifically, this was the loss of a pivotal example of the period when the English country house was beginning to assume the architectural form that would define it for generations.