Bowden House, previously called both "Bowden Green" and "Port Jackson", is an

English country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

. It is a historic

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

listed building. The house is located southwest of

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in the West Berkshire unitary area of the county of Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has shops, churches, schools and a village hall. Outside its nucleated village, grouped developed are ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

History

The house was originally called "Bowden Green" and was built between 1897 and 1898 by architect Arnold Bidlake Mitchell (1863–1944) for the engineer of the

Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in ...

Sir Benjamin Baker Sir Benjamin Baker (31 March 1840 – 19 May 1907) was an English civil engineer who worked in mid to late Victorian era. He helped develop the early underground railways in London with Sir John Fowler, but he is best known for his work on th ...

. When the unmarried Baker died in 1907, the property went to his niece, Mona Spagnoletti, née Kemp, and her husband James Spagnoletti, the son of inventor

Charles Spagnoletti Charles Ernest Spagnoletti MInstCE, MIEE (12 July 1832 – 28 June 1915) was an electrical inventor and the first telegraph superintendent of the Great Western Railway (GWR). He also advised various railway companies on the use of electricity, ...

, who were already living with Baker. An addition was made to the west end of the house in around 1910, containing a billiards room. At a later point,

Pangbourne College Pangbourne College is a mixed-sex education, coeducational Public school (UK), public school (private boarding school, boarding and day school, day school), for pupils aged 13-18 years, in Pangbourne, Berkshire, England. It is set in 230 acres ...

acquired the property and used it as a

junior school A junior school is a type of school which provides primary education to children, often in the age range from 8 and 13, following attendance at an infant school, which covers the age range 5–7. Since both infant and junior schools provide pri ...

and dormitory, called "Port Jackson". In 2003 the school built a new building on their main campus to house Port Jackson and offered the house for sale.

Architecture

The house's style is variously described as Domestic Revival,

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

, and Vernacular Revival. The exterior is brick, with shaped tiles on the first floor and a multitude of gables. Some of the bay windows are in

hamstone Hamstone is a honey-coloured building stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, England. It is a well-cemented medium to coarse grained limestone characterised by marked bedding planes of clay inclusions and less well-cemented material which weather dif ...

. The "well preserved, cleverly planned interior" contains significant

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

decorations, including gilded friezes in the hall and dining room. There are

De Morgan De Morgan or de Morgan is a surname, and may refer to: *Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871), British mathematician and logician. ** De Morgan's laws (or De Morgan's theorem), a set of rules from propositional logic. ** The De Morgan Medal, a trienn ...

tiles surrounding the drawing room fireplace. The property had extensive outbuildings, some of which remain, including the

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed octagonal Fowl-House.

References

External links

Royal Berkshire History – Pangbourne

Historic England – Bowden House
Grade II* listed buildings in Berkshire Grade II* listed houses Country houses in Berkshire West Berkshire District Houses completed in 1898 {{UK-listed-building-stub