Welton Manor

House, with associated estate buildings to the north-west. Built in about 1860 in a combination of the Classical and Gothic Revival style.

MATERIALS: constructed of yellow brick laid in English bond with a decorative brick eaves cornice and red brick banding. The timber, hornless sash windows, with margin glazing, are set beneath Caernarvon arched heads to the principal elevations and flat heads to the service range; the heads and cills are of stone. The hipped roofs are covered with slate tiles with clay ridge tiles. Tall brick chimney stacks with dentilled cornices and clay pots.

PLAN: two storey and roughly ‘L’ shaped in plan comprising the double-pile polite range with the principal rooms to the south-east of an axial corridor that leads off the entrance hall. The corridor turns at a right angle to access the service range which has a cellar beneath.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces south-east and has a central section of three bays flanked by full-height projecting bays with two-storey canted bay windows with conical roofs. The south-west elevation forms the entrance façade and comprises a central, single-storey porch with a stone parapet and three-panel double doors set beneath a large transom window. To the rear (north-west) elevation is a Venetian window and an additional two bays to the left with sash windows to each floor. The service range projects to the north-west abutting the window heads and cills of the rear elevation of the house.

INTERIOR: the entrance hall has an extensive geometric tiled floor with encaustic tiles to the perimeter. To the centre are three blue and white tiles that incorporate the initials of John and Elizabeth Vessey and their coat of arms. The open-well oak staircase has square newel posts with finials, pendants and a curtail step, with a balustrade incorporating decorative panels of pierced quatrefoils and braces. The stone arched fireplace has quatrefoils and tiled inserts. Throughout, the interior retains most of its fireplaces, decorative cornices, ornate ceiling roses, as well as its joinery with panelled doors and window shutters. In at least one room is a bell push to the side of the fireplace.

ESTATE BUILDINGS: immediately opposite the north-west elevation of the service range, across a walled courtyard, is a single-storey, four bay range, and to the north-east side, the two-storey former groom’s cottage. Both are built of yellow brick with dentilled cornices and red brick cambered arch heads above the timber plank doors and casement windows. The roofs are covered in slate tiles. Further to the north-west are the remains of an additional walled courtyard with a single-storey coach house with timber doors, and a stable block with a central round arched entrance flanked by a pair of double doors and a window; to the left of the archway is a ridge stack. Both buildings are of yellow brick with clay tile roofs.