Woodhouse Including Attached Service Range To North

Woodhouse Including Attached Service Range to North

Country house at West Felton, built 1773–4 by Robert Mylne for William Mostyn-Owen, incorporating parts of an earlier house built for Robert Owen, Sheriff of Shropshire, in the early 17th century. Later additions and alterations have been made.

The main house is constructed of red brick with sandstone ashlar dressings and plinth, encapsulating a timber frame beneath. It has a double-span low-pitched hipped slate roof with painted stacks set below the ridge. Two storeys are surmounted by a continuous moulded entablature and parapet, with Ionic pilasters applied to the corners and centre of the main fronts.

The entrance front features two pairs of glazing-bar sashes (15-paned to ground floor) with gauged heads, flanking a central recess. A distyle Ionic portico in antis projects from this recess, supported on two giant Ionic columns to create a porch effect. The portico itself is sandstone, while the recess is rendered brick scored in imitation of large ashlar blocks. A broken-pedimented doorcase crowns the entrance, carved with a double-headed eagle (the Mostyn family crest); it was formerly flanked by roundels, now infilled and partly cut by glazing-bar sashes inserted around 1927. Contemporary sash windows directly above light the first floor. Lead down-pipes run to the corners and sides of the centre recess.

The south front displays a 3:3:3 bay arrangement, with the centre section forming a full-height ashlar-faced bow with applied giant Ionic columns. Glazing-bar sashes with gauged heads (15-paned to ground floor) light each bay. The west front presents a 2:3:1 bay arrangement, with the centre section recessed and flanked by lead down-pipes in the angles; entablature marks the right bay only. Glazing-bar sashes light the first floor, while tall round-headed windows with glazing bars light the ground floor. The north front is rendered partly over exposed timber frame, with four glazing-bar sashes to the first floor and sash windows of reduced proportions directly above to the second floor, plus one window recently inserted at the time of resurvey in June 1986. A brick lean-to below features blind wide segmental-headed arches to left and right, with sash windows inserted.

The attached service range to the north is probably mainly dated to 1773–4, though it reuses earlier sash windows to its rear, and its eaves were raised circa 1830–40. It originally incorporated a brewhouse and bakehouse on the ground floor, with a former granary above, later converted to domestic accommodation. The range is of three storeys arranged in a 2:1:2 bay pattern, with the centre section forming a slightly projecting break carrying a dentilled cornice that extends up around a pediment. Segmental-headed glazing-bar sashes with projecting keystones light the range; the lower right opening has been infilled with a half-glazed door of segmental head, also inserted. An entrance was knocked through to the centre bay, and a segmental-headed 6-panel door (with top panels now glazed) stands to the far left. The date "1909" appears on rainwater heads set in the angle between the projecting break and ranges to left and right. Ridge stacks stand to left and right of the pediment, with additional outer ridge stacks to the left and an integral end stack to the left. A central octagonal louvred lantern housing a bell is surmounted by a brass weathervane. The former roof pitch remains visible to the right gable end. The rear displays five segmental-headed openings on each floor, some blind and others containing late 17th-century or early 18th-century sash windows with thick glazing bars. Segmental-headed air vents for the former granary sit above the first-floor windows. An attached pump and stone basin stand between the fourth and fifth bays from the left.

Interior

The entrance hall contains a central stone staircase that ascends in one flight before branching at right-angles to left and right on a half-landing. The staircase is fitted with a cast-iron balustrade featuring oval-shaped rosettes to the open string and a wreathed handrail. An octagonal lantern with plaster decoration to each face provides overhead light. A cast-iron balustrade of similar design lines the first floor, with a wide elliptical arch above the centre and narrower flanking arches. Round-headed arches crown the top of each flight. A colonnade in antis stands in front of the staircase, consisting of two sandstone Ionic columns supporting a frieze that continues from the balustrade below. A stone fireplace to the right bears carvings of double-headed eagles above miniature Ionic columns.

The room to the left of the entrance hall contains an Adam-style marble fireplace depicting scenes from classical mythology, with an elaborate plaster frieze and cornice. The room behind, set within the bow, features a marble fireplace carved with a putto astride an eagle, with scalloped round-headed niches above and to the sides (now infilled with 19th-century bookcases) and an elaborate plaster frieze and cornice. Double doors in a reeded pilastered surround lead to a rectangular room with an Adam-style marble fireplace and another elaborate plaster frieze and cornice.

The dining room, positioned behind the entrance hall, has a plaster frieze with festooned garlands and egg-and-dart moulding to the cornice, together with a plain marble fireplace carved with the double-headed eagle crest.

The rooms to the right of the entrance hall represent the earlier part of the house. Exposed timber frame—mostly close studding dated to circa 1600—is visible on both floors and in the attic. An overhanging gallery with a window to the present kitchen marks the back wall of the original house. Reused rectangular oak panelling, some with a fluted frieze, is found throughout, including to the back staircase. Panelled doors and moulded plaster cornices adorn the first-floor rooms in the 18th-century part of the house.

Builder's accounts for the rebuilding of 1773–4 survive. Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to the house between 1828 and 1833. An addition of circa 1927 in 18th-century style, formerly attached to the north, was demolished around 1984.