WIVENHOE COLCHESTER ROAD 1. 5214 Wivenhoe House TM 02 SW 13/42 1.6.73 II* 2. A red brick mansion house of 3 storeys. The original house was built in 1759 by Thomas Reynolds of London for Isaac Martin Rebow, possibly to the designs of Mathew Brettingham, for the sum of £3,654 (the specification is in the Essex Record Office). Richard Woods was commissioned to landscape the park in the 1770. In 1816 John Constable painted a view of the lake for the sum of 100 guineas. In 1846 John Gurdon Rebow commissioned Thomas Hopper to alter the house and the work was done by a local builder, Henry Haywood. The building was entirely re-cast in Victorian Tudor style and all that survives of importance from the original house is some of the plaster decoration of the north-west and south-west ground floor rooms and 2 chimney pieces. Most of the rainwater heads are dated 1848 and have the initials IGR. The north entrance front has 2 shaped gables, one at each end, 2 and 3 light bar and transom windows in a range of 7, central projecting porch rising the full length of the building with a crow stepped gable and upper storey oriel window above an elaborate carved wood entrance doorcase with carved crest, panelled pilasters, arched entrance, and double panelled doors. The west front is in similar style, but a large 3 storey bay at the north end with windows of 7 lights, the ground floor window having an ironwork balcony, and a shaped gable to the south end. The south front has 3 storey end bays with shaped gables, bar and transom windows of 5 lights, the centre also with a shaped gable and an upper storey oriel window. The chimney stacks are all built in octagonal Elizabethan style in groups. To the east of the main house is a 2 storey block shown as the east wing on the Hopper plans which has C18 brick and double hung sash windows with glazing bars to the south and west ground floor fronts but was otherwise recast by Hopper in the same style as the main block, having shaped gables and octagonal chimney shafts, but with two light casements with wood moulds to the upper storey. The interior was also largely remodelled in 1847 and only the south west and north west ground floor rooms known then as the drawing room and the boudoir, were kept with their ornamental plasterwork to the walls and ceilings some of it dating from the original C18 house, it has bird and flowers motifs, well-executed and designed. There are marble chimney pieces in the drawing room brought from Italy in 1847. In the south east ground floor room, formerly tile dining room, is a fine rococo chimney piece with mirror-overmantel in Chippendale style. The entrance hall is entirely by Hopper with enriched plaster ceiling, cornices etc. and a carved chimney piece in Jacobean style. In the eastern part of the house is a grand staircase and staircase hall. Known as Wivenhoe Park until it became part of Essex University in 1962.-= Listing NGR: TM0327524120