Page 11 - Oundle Life Issue 7 May 2021

creations were something of a ‘pick-and-mix’ approach to design. As a result, their work was often described as having ‘a curious scale’, being ‘strangely proportioned’, and frequently displaying ‘an ignorance of how Classical elements are put together.’
building corners, is quite unlike Thorpe Hall and Thorney Abbey House with their hipped roofs and projecting quoins. Indeed, Cobthorne is more similar to another local building from the early Mannerist period, The Haycock in
According to Summerson, with the
Artisan style ‘Horizontal stress became
the fashion, with heavy eaves-cornices
and string courses’ appearing on new
buildings in the 1630s along with the
vertical ‘cross-window’ with mullion
and transom in either stone (in the
early period) or wood in the later
period). As the style evolved ‘Italian’ or ‘Hip Roofs’ with heavily projecting eaves replaced more vernacular gables with parapets, and large ‘rusticated’ stone quoins replaced their flush counterparts to emphasize their strength and character.
Applying the above logic, we might quickly infer that Cobthorne, with its gabled roof and parapet, along with flush quoins at the
Stop, ponder, examine, and question the buildings around you
Wansford (c. 1632) (pictured overleaf) which also shares a very similar projecting eaves detail along with a continuation of the stone string course at eaves level across the gable ends.
Furthermore, it is evident that both the Haycock and Cobthorne were originally built with Jacobean-style stone mullioned windows with ovolo
mouldings which went out of fashion c. 1640. Today Cobthorne has chunky sash windows at ground and first floor levels with heavy glazing bars, wide wooden cases, and shallow reveals. These likely replaced the original cross-windows in the late-17th century. The English Heritage listing dates the house c. 1700 which I suspect
is based on their reading of the windows at the time of listing. According to Summerson,
11
©Thorpe Hall By Zoe Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0, wikimedia.org