Retro: Name that house

David Cliffe • Published 1 Oct 2009 13:00 0 Comments

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I SOMETIMES wish there were a computer programme with a photographic memory, loaded with millions of images of England.

From these, it would be able to match any other picture you fed into it, and it would tell you where it was taken and possibly when. It would recognise buildings, no matter from what angle they were taken, and to match bends in roads or rivers and the profiles of hills.

Until my dream is fulfilled, I'm asking Retro readers if they recognise this house.

It's on a postcard, of indeterminate date, with no caption and no publisher's or photographer's name. Someone has pencilled the word Berks on the back but apart from that, I have no idea as to which country house it could be.

Seeing those flanking single-storey buildings with a balustrade on top to the left and the right made me think it might be Buckland House, in the Vale of White Horse.

But on checking, I find that there are too many windows in this façade for it to be that house. Like Buckland, the house has two-and-a-half storeys, with the ground floor being rather taller than the first, which makes the proportions look a bit odd.

The Ionic columns above the ground floor look rather short, and the front door has Tuscan columns.

It appears to be summer, with some of the windows open, and striped sun-blinds at some of them.

I've looked at many pictures of country houses in Berkshire, without, so far, being able to match any of them with this one. Please get in touch if you know where it is.

- Send an email to ahewitt@berksmedia.co.uk or call 0118 955 3303.

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