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Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812 (6). Unexecuted design for 2nd Earl Camden
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Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812 (6). Unexecuted design for 2nd Earl Camden
Notes
Bayham Abbey was bought by Sir John Pratt in 1714. On his death in 1724 it went to his eldest son by his first marriage, John Pratt (1690-1770), who built the first residence. This can be seen in an engraving published by J. Sprange, Tunbridge Wells, 1 October 1782 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Pratt MSS, U840 Z62). Thus among the ruins of the Abbey is a two-storey Gothic villa with canted bays either side of the front door and with a battlemented parapet. Bayham Hall and its estate were eventually inherited by John Jeffreys Pratt, 2nd Earl Camden, and have remained in the family.
The monastic ruins of Bayham Abbey lie on the border of Sussex and Kent, the Premonstratensian abbey in Sussex while Bayham Abbey, the present Tudor mansion by David Brandon (1870-2) is in Kent. It is not known where on the estate was the intended location for Dance's Bayham Hall though his plan ([SM D2/7/3]) supposes a clear site and a precise north/south/east/west orientation.
Dance's unexecuted design for Bayham Hall was his largest country house commission; 160 feet wide by 114 feet deep, the plan expanded into that of a 15-part villa. The entrance hall, Polygon Hall and principal stair are arranged in the same way as at Coleorton and in the unexecuted Norman Court project, that is, a Polygon Hall in the centre of the house fronted by the entrance hall entered via a porte-cochere with the stair placed asymmetrically on one side. As with Norman Court, the offices are sited in a single large block asymmetrically to one side. The elevations are Gothic, that is, with turrets and drop-arched windows but with Classical elements in the string courses and pediments.
Kalman analysed the room dimensions based on 24, 30 and 40 feet (forming a mathematical harmonic progression) and 24, 34 and 44 feet (forming an arithmetical progression) and concluded that 'Dance believed that he was not merely adopting the method of Alberti or Palladio, but that through them he might grasp the nearly forgotten system of the ancients. His gesture becomes a paradigm of neoclassicism' (p.181).
The drawings are not inscribed for Bayham Hall and it was Harold Kalman who identified them. The first inventory of Sir John Soane's Museum was made in 1837 by the then curator, George Bailey and on page 327 'Baynham Hall' is listed though in the 1839 copy of that inventory 'Baynam Hall - Marquess of Camden' is marked 'not found'.
Among the Pratt MSS (Centre for Kentish Studies, U840 P71) are drawings and two letters from William Wilkins to Lord Camden relating to the preservation of Bayham Abbey ruins, 1799 as well as designs for cottages (U840 72/1-17 'withdrawn 1977').
Also among the Pratt MSS (Centre for Kentish Studies, U840 C40/2) is an almost illegible letter of 15 April 1814 written from Bayham Abbey by Lady Sarah Price (died 1818), the third daughter of Charles, 1st Earl Camden to her sister Frances, Marchioness of Londonderry, that mentions a long-projected scheme for building a castle at Bayham with 'Repton & his Son' busy choosing the most suitable site.
Again, there is among the Pratt MSS (Centre for Kentish Studies, U 840 addn.EB145) a small bundle of nine drawings in a wrapper inscribed 'Mr Smirke's design for a house at Bayham Abbey / Febry 1816'. In pencil on foolscap watermarked 1811 and 1813, they have at some time been over-drawn by a crude amateur hand. They show two (unexecuted) schemes for a castellated house 160 feet and 134 feet wide on a plan more irregular than Dance's and with the addition of, for example, a chapel and a billiard room. Perhaps this was another job that, like Lowther Castle, Dance passed on to his protége Robert Smirke (1780-1867).
LITERATURE. Stroud pp.165n., 234, 238; Kalman, pp.177-87 (including a discussion of proportion).
OTHER SOURCES. Information from the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone.
The monastic ruins of Bayham Abbey lie on the border of Sussex and Kent, the Premonstratensian abbey in Sussex while Bayham Abbey, the present Tudor mansion by David Brandon (1870-2) is in Kent. It is not known where on the estate was the intended location for Dance's Bayham Hall though his plan ([SM D2/7/3]) supposes a clear site and a precise north/south/east/west orientation.
Dance's unexecuted design for Bayham Hall was his largest country house commission; 160 feet wide by 114 feet deep, the plan expanded into that of a 15-part villa. The entrance hall, Polygon Hall and principal stair are arranged in the same way as at Coleorton and in the unexecuted Norman Court project, that is, a Polygon Hall in the centre of the house fronted by the entrance hall entered via a porte-cochere with the stair placed asymmetrically on one side. As with Norman Court, the offices are sited in a single large block asymmetrically to one side. The elevations are Gothic, that is, with turrets and drop-arched windows but with Classical elements in the string courses and pediments.
Kalman analysed the room dimensions based on 24, 30 and 40 feet (forming a mathematical harmonic progression) and 24, 34 and 44 feet (forming an arithmetical progression) and concluded that 'Dance believed that he was not merely adopting the method of Alberti or Palladio, but that through them he might grasp the nearly forgotten system of the ancients. His gesture becomes a paradigm of neoclassicism' (p.181).
The drawings are not inscribed for Bayham Hall and it was Harold Kalman who identified them. The first inventory of Sir John Soane's Museum was made in 1837 by the then curator, George Bailey and on page 327 'Baynham Hall' is listed though in the 1839 copy of that inventory 'Baynam Hall - Marquess of Camden' is marked 'not found'.
Among the Pratt MSS (Centre for Kentish Studies, U840 P71) are drawings and two letters from William Wilkins to Lord Camden relating to the preservation of Bayham Abbey ruins, 1799 as well as designs for cottages (U840 72/1-17 'withdrawn 1977').
Also among the Pratt MSS (Centre for Kentish Studies, U840 C40/2) is an almost illegible letter of 15 April 1814 written from Bayham Abbey by Lady Sarah Price (died 1818), the third daughter of Charles, 1st Earl Camden to her sister Frances, Marchioness of Londonderry, that mentions a long-projected scheme for building a castle at Bayham with 'Repton & his Son' busy choosing the most suitable site.
Again, there is among the Pratt MSS (Centre for Kentish Studies, U 840 addn.EB145) a small bundle of nine drawings in a wrapper inscribed 'Mr Smirke's design for a house at Bayham Abbey / Febry 1816'. In pencil on foolscap watermarked 1811 and 1813, they have at some time been over-drawn by a crude amateur hand. They show two (unexecuted) schemes for a castellated house 160 feet and 134 feet wide on a plan more irregular than Dance's and with the addition of, for example, a chapel and a billiard room. Perhaps this was another job that, like Lowther Castle, Dance passed on to his protége Robert Smirke (1780-1867).
LITERATURE. Stroud pp.165n., 234, 238; Kalman, pp.177-87 (including a discussion of proportion).
OTHER SOURCES. Information from the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone.
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Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk
Contents of Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812 (6). Unexecuted design for 2nd Earl Camden
- Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812
- Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812
- Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812
- Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812
- Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812
- Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex, 1812