Wittington House

Wittington House - SAS Marlow

Internal and External Window Refurbishment and Redecorations

Value: £136k

BRIEF SCOPE

Wittington House stands majestically on a breathtaking luxury estate. Rich in beauty and steeped in history, we were engaged for a 12-week project to adjust the weights of the sash windows, which had been fitted with the wrong glass, impairing their functionality.

We needed to assess over 200 windows and unseal those that had been previously painted shut, which hindered their operation. Each window required through preparation, including sanding down the frames both inside and out, redecorating, and applying mastic bead along with cement filling at the base to ensure they remained secure.

HISTORY

The region surrounding the Wittington estate has been inhabited since the Iron Age, with Danesfield Hill Fort, constructed over 2,000 years ago, located at the estate's western boundary. Numerous Roman coins and artefacts have been recovered from the nearby River Thames. Hudson Ewebank Kearley, the estate's first owner, noted signs of a Saxon  settlement, and the name Wittington along with its various historic forms like Wydendon and Whittington, has Saxon roots.

Over the centuries, activities such as chalk quarrying took place, supplying materials for the 13th-century Medmenham Abbey, while the Thames served as a significant transportation route. In the 1970s, the remains of a flash-lock capstan, a unique structure in England used for towing barges upstream at Hurley weir, were unearthed. This capstan was fully restored in 1999 and is currently preserved by SAS.

In 1997, SAS expanded its holdings by purchasing the adjacent land, adding 34 acres to the estate. This land, previously the RAF Medmenham base, was acquired from the Ministry of Defence and was associated with Operation Crossbow, a crucial military initiative aimed at identifying V1 and V2 rocket sites in northern Europe during World War 11. The area has yielded various munitions and ordnance, including a large casing for a prototype of Barnes Wallis' bouncing bomb.