Listed Building: BURTON CLOSES (1148032)

Country house, now residential home. 3 principal building phases: firstly a summer villa built c1845-48 for John Allcard, banker and stockbroker to a design by Paxton and John Robertson; the interior fittings by AWN Pugin executed by JG Crace, Minton, Hardman and George Myers. Second phase: c1856-58 extensions for William Allcard, railway engineer, to a design by TD Barry of Liverpool and EW Pugin. Third phase: further additions in 1888 for Smith Taylor-Whitehead by JB Mitchel-Withers. MATERIALS: deeply-coursed tooled sandstone with ashlar dressings; slate roofs with rolled-lead ridges. PLAN: when completed the house formed a U-shaped plan around an entrance courtyard; the north range was demolished in 1949 and replaced by the present building of 1972 by Robert Quie Associates. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with partial attics; single-storey (former) conservatory. Deeply-moulded plinths and continuous first-floor string course; tall octagonal paired stacks throughout. Central block of c1845-48 is aligned north-south and is in Tudor Gothic style. Plan: central 2-storey entrance hall with stairs to right, principal rooms to rear, services to left; originally there were only 2 main bedrooms. Entrance front (west): symmetrical, 3 bays, the centre projecting and having stepped 1:3:1-light window to first floor, coped gable and octagonal pinnacles; one-storey porch with studded doors in Tudor-arched surround with hoodmould, castellated parapet with pinnacles. Outer bays: two 2-light windows beneath stepped 3-light windows which rise into dormers with coped gables and metal finials. Hoodmoulds throughout. Garden front (E): asymmetrical, 4 bays. 2 wings both gabled, one with stepped 3-light window over canted bay, the other with canted oriel over 3-light window; 3-light windows elsewhere and all are mullioned with transoms (except the oriel); coped gables with pinnacles and apex finials (as front). Left return (S) is as bay 3 of garden front. The second phase wing (to south); in Perpendicular Gothic Revival style. The building of this involved the removal of the conservatory which was re-assembled to west of this range; it is of 8 bays, each bay with C20 casement; panelled pilaster buttresses, crenellated cornice. The wing itself, a markedly asymmetrical 5-bay elevation dominated by an octagonal turret (the spirelet removed), with traceried upper panels, the topmost panels pierced, single-light windows to first floor and a garden entrance below. To the left one gabled and 2 hipped bays with oriel and storeyed bay windows respectively; recessed bay connects (to right) with south return of earlier range. Courtyard elevation treated in a more restrained fashion which harmonises with the earlier work. INTERIOR: central block; entrance hall in late medieval spirit; panel-vaulted ceiling with stencilled patterning (by Crace); 5-light window with patterned glass (by Hardman); screen with gallery and linenfold panelling, part glazed with trefoiled lights. Stair hall to right: open-well staircase with poppy-head finials on octagonal newels, octagonal balusters, richly-carved panelling to dado and string. Dining room with crenellated fireplace having motto and John Allcard's initials; panelled dado and ceiling with stencilled decoration bearing morally uplifting texts; transom lights have monograms. Drawing room: 2 ornate doorways with original brass door furniture and pierced cresting; wall mirror in carved and crested surround; 11x5-panel ceiling with repeated stencilled design (some panels painted over); patterned glass to the transom lights. Present office with crested library shelving and panelled ceiling. Numerous original features elsewhere. Second phase wing; a vaulted passage links to 1840s drawing room and to a room having a polychromatic fireplace with initials 'W.A.', oak motifs and birds in a vine trail; diagonal ceiling panels with repeated stencilled design. Former billiard room also with original fireplace and panelled ceiling. 1888 east garden front (to north of 1840s range): in a plain Renaissance style. Paired cross-windows, buttresses with gablets rise to middle of first floor; gabled roof dormers. The south bay angled towards the 1840s range, the dormer more elaborate with grotesques and flying buttresses. Gateway to courtyard with large piers having stopped chamfers and castellated tops; one wing wall has small bellcote on courtyard side. HISTORY: John Allcard occupied the house with his unmarried daughter. He died in 1856 and the estate passed to his son William who had eleven children. William only occupied the extended house for 3 years; on his death in 1858 it passed to his son William Henry Allcard, a barrister. The family lost its wealth in the stock market crash of 11 May 1866 'Black Friday'. The house finally passed from the family in 1871. EXTRA INFORMATION: the house is starred because the early work (although now incomplete) presents what has been described as a 'virtual epitome of early Victorian visual taste' (set in grounds landscaped by Paxton). The later ranges are handled very sensitively and create a complex C19 house of considerable distinction. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Derbyshire: Harmondsworth: 1986-: 77-78; Dissertation B.A. History of Design: Carrington P: Burton Closes, Bakewell, Derbyshire: 1986-). Listing NGR: SK2205467664