| Cronkhill | |
|---|---|
 Cronkhill | |
 Interactive map of Cronkhill | |
| General information | |
| Type | Country house |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| Location | Atcham,England |
| Coordinates | 52°40′13″N2°41′16″W / 52.6703°N 2.6879°W /52.6703; -2.6879 |
| Construction started | 1802 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | John Nash |
| Designations | Grade I |
Cronkhill,Atcham,Shropshire, designed byJohn Nash, is "the earliestItalianate villa in England".[1]
Drawing on influences from theItalian Campagna and thePicturesque, including the art ofClaude Lorrain, it began an architectural style that was hugely influential in England in the first half of the nineteenth century. Major examples includeTrentham Park andOsborne House. Nash's "most original building",[2] it isGrade I listed.[1]
The house was designed byJohn Nash in 1802[3] for Francis Walford.[4] Walford was a friend ofThomas Noel Hill, 2nd Baron Berwick, of nearbyAttingham Park, and the agent for Berwick's Attingham estates.[4] Mansbridge considers that the design was "almost certainly inspired" byClaude Lorrain's painting "Landscape near Rome with a View of thePonte Molle."[5] Lord Berwick was the owner of two Claude landscapes.[2] Walford lived at Cronkhill, managing Lord Berwick's Attingham interests, until their relationship ended acrimoniously in 1828, when Walford left the house.[6] It was then occupied by members of the Berwick family, often when Attingham Park was let, until their final return to Attingham in the 1920s.[6] Cronkhill, along with Attingham Park, was gifted to theNational Trust in the post-war period.[4]
The body of the house is a rectangular two-storey block,[4] with a circular, three-storey, tower to the north and a square, three-storey, tower to the west.[1] Aloggia links the two towers.[1] The walls are now whitestucco,[4] although the colour may originally have been designed to imitateashlar.[4] Internally, the main reception rooms are simply decorated, comprising a drawing room in the round tower, a library in the square tower and a dining room in the body of the house.[2] Although influential, the house, as with much of Nash's work, was subject to criticism, Davis describing the round tower as "merely a dramatic architectural trick, (containing neither) a circular staircase, nor even one circular room."[7] In 2016, the National Trust undertook a major restoration of the house to "restore Cronkhill's appearance back to Nash's original design."[8]
52°40′13″N2°41′16″W / 52.67028°N 2.68778°W /52.67028; -2.68778