Thorpe Hall

SOUTH ELKINGTON ELKINGTON ROAD TF 38 NW 8/4 Thorpe Hall 6.6.52 G.V. II*

Small country house. Originally built in 1584 for Sir John Bolle, with C17 modifications, substantial C18 enlargements and early C19 and C20 alterations. Red brick, ashlar dressings, old plain tiled roofs with brick coped gables and lead dressed hips. 3 large ridge stacks with diamond set shafts. The early C18 front has a hipped roof with modillioned cornice, is 2 storeys plus attics, and of 7 bays, the centre bay slightly advanced. The central half glazed door is flanked by 3 glazing bar sashes. To first floor are 7 glazing bar sashes. In the roof are 3 dormer windows with sliding sashes, moulded gabled and rendered cheeks. To the right is an early C19 block. At the rear is a projecting steeply gabled block with 3 diapers in dark headers to the gable, probably forming part of the original house. Above a small entrance porch to the right is set an ashlar datestone inscribed "1584" and to left is a further gabled block which although altered retains a pattern of late C17 fenestration. Interior. The entrance hall has C17 oak panelling and an ornate Jacobean overmantle probably imported and reset in C19. The dog leg staircase is late C17 with moulded handrail and bulbous balusters. The dining room has reset full height C17 panelling with some panels having semi-circular heads with decorative pilasters and leaves in the spandrels. The first floor has early C19 decorated cornices and elliptical arches, and 2 rooms with early C18 fielded panelling and bolection moulded fireplace surrounds. The original kitchen has a large ashlar 3 centred arch with keystone, and imposts, flanked by single brick arches with keystones. The roof over the main range is staggered butt purlin construction, reusing timbers from an earlier roof. The house is set in grounds laid out by Gertrude Jekyll in 1906, and the terraces use stonework from Sir Christopher Wren's church of St. Mildred in the Poultry. Sir John Bolle fought at Cadiz in 1596 and there took captive a Spanish Lady which event became the subject of a ballad "The Spanish Lady's love for an Englishman" and was celebrated in a poem by Shenston "Love and Honour". His son, Sir Charles Bolle, was a distinguished Royalist. John Lewis Fytche, Tennyson's uncle, was resident here in C19. Source: Ross Papers, Vol. VI.

Listing NGR: TF3177087193