Gorehill House, Petworth, West Sussex

The story behind this Victorian country house is, we think, a good one. 

, so too does the opportunity to add a chapter all your own…

Unlike most houses’ histories, this one begins long before the first foundations were laid, in the mid-18

 century. In 1753, Charles Wyndham, the 2nd Earl of Egremont, charged Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown with the reshaping of his demesnes at Petworth. Ever the salesman, it seems, Brown’s nickname was born from his proclivity to tell clients that their estates had ‘capability’ – and he was the one to coax their grounds into greatness. That’s exactly what he did at Audley End and Stowe, Chatsworth, Blenheim and, of course, Petworth, where over the next decade or so Capability sculpted a seemingly natural landscape of lakes, parkland and snaking ornamental canals.

Fast-forward a century or so, and enter Henry Upton, a solicitor and Petworth’s estate manager. In 1872, Upton was looking for a prime spot on which to build a new house. In light of Brown’s brilliant work, it’s no wonder he chose this elevated patch of gently sloping south-facing land. And the man he picked for the building job was Richard Norman Shaw, the Victorians’ answer to a ‘starchitect’, now generally considered one of Britain’s finest from the period.

Though he’s known for his work in the Queen Anne revival style, Norman Shaw began his career as a designer of neo-gothic churches (such as that at Bingley, in Yorkshire). While Gorehill is, with its timber frame and steep gables, in the vernacular Sussex Weald style, impressions of Norman Shaw’s gothic period can be traced in the house, not least in its pointed stone doorway, like the arches of a church’s aisle. Perhaps the greatest thing Norman Shaw did here was to recognise that the views are of tantamount value. Almost every window in the house frames a spectacular square of the Sussex countryside, in all its glorious green.

In terms of views, not much has changed in the intervening years, while closer to home, the nine-acre grounds still ramble romantically, lawns giving way to greenhouses and a walled garden, then onwards to pony-dotted paddocks. Inside, however, the current owners have left their mark, lovingly decorating its generous rooms. Think sprigged wallpaper, swagged curtains and a proper country kitchen.

The nice thing about provenance, from our perspective, is that you can always add to it. And now there’s a chance to shape the legacy of this marvel in the South Downs. Snap it up.

Homes

A Victorian house near the Petworth estate, Gorehill House was designed by a celebrated architect and sits upon land sculpted by Capability Brown. Inigo, for one, is persuaded by its prestigious provenance…

A Polite Request

Inspiration of the Week: explore the prime pedigree – and good prospects – of this country pile in West Sussex

A Victorian house near the Petworth estate, Gorehill House was designed by a celebrated architect and sits upon land sculpted by Capability Brown. Inigo, for one, is persuaded by its prestigious provenance…