Compton Wynyates

Compton Wynyates is a fortified manor house, mainly dating from around 1500 with incorporated parts of an earlier house. It received 18th-century additions and underwent 19th and 20th-century repairs. The building is constructed of rose-red brickwork with dark brick diapering, particularly prominent on the entrance front, and features limestone dressings to doors and windows. The roofs are steeply pitched stone slate with stone-coped gables and stone battlement copings. The house has numerous brick ridge, lateral and end stacks decorated with mouldings.

The building is arranged around a courtyard plan. The entrance front comprises a main range with north and south ranges, rising to two storeys plus attic in three bays with corner turrets. An off-centre porch to the right is flanked by gable-fronted half-timbered projecting bays with irregular fenestration. The two-storey embattled porch features a four-centred arched entrance with decorated spandrels bearing on the left the arms of Katherine of Aragon and on the right the portcullis badge of the Tudors. Above the entrance are the Royal Arms of England supported by the dragon and greyhound of Henry VII and Henry VIII. A three-light stone-mullioned window with four-centred arched heads and continuous hood mould sits above. The embattled parapet is centred by a panel bearing a sundial.

The inner porch has moulded ribbed ceiling beams and a 15th-century door. The low gabled bay to the left contains four-light stone-mullioned windows to ground and first floors with hood moulds and label stops, and a three-light mullioned window to the attic. Its gable features herringbone timber-framing and carved bargeboards. A similar but higher bay to the right has four-light stone-mullioned and transomed windows to ground and first floors with hood moulds and label stops, and a three-light window to the attic. This gable also has herringbone timber-framing and carved bargeboards. Elsewhere, two- and three-light stone-mullioned windows light all storeys.

The south front includes a large, irregular embattled tower. To its right stands a five-light window serving the chapel, with transoms and arched heads. Rainwater heads on this front are dated IN/1723. The east front carries an addition flanking the east range, with rainwater heads dated IN 1732. The north front, remodelled around 1867 by Sir Mathew Digby Wyatt, includes a tower with seven-light wood-mullioned windows and a four-light ogee-sectioned stone-mullioned window. It has a Georgian brick parapet.

The courtyard contains four-centred arched doorways with plank doors, and windows of square-headed or two- and four-centred lights with cusped or uncusped heads. The east range has a large bay window to the hall, noted as coming from Fulbroke Castle. An eight-light stone-mullioned window serving the chapel range has a king mullion and continuous hood mould with label stop. Four gabled roof dormers light the south range. The parapets have been renewed, the north one in the 20th century. Rainwater heads in the courtyard are dated IN 1732.

Interior

The hall retains a 15th-century screens passage with linenfold panelling incorporating earlier carved panels and 20th-century doors. The original hall roof was replaced around 1512 by a four-bay roof from Fulbroke Castle, which includes a deeply carved frieze. An 18th-century stone fireplace is present. The minstrel gallery retains its original roof of around 1480. The buttery at the lower end of the hall has linenfold panelling. The passage to the kitchen features rail and muntin panelling.

The dining room has a plaster ceiling of 1620 and later date, with panelling of 1620 and 1730, when the whole was painted red. An open-well staircase by Digby-Wyatt is present, with a 19th-century wood and plaster ceiling above.

The drawing room contains an elaborately carved 16th-century fireplace and overmantel from Canonbury House, Islington, and a 16th-century plaster ceiling.

The chapel drawing room has plaster ceiling and panelling dating from around 1620, a 20th-century stone fireplace, and a wood-mullioned window with 20th-century glazing overlooking the chapel below.

King Henry VIII's bedroom features a plaster ceiling of around 1625 and a four-centred arched stone fireplace. A wood spiral stair rises to the Council Chamber, which has 16th-century clapboard panelling and doors and a stone Tudor fireplace. Another stone spiral stair leads to the Priest's Room, added to the New Tower, which has an arched-braced collar roof panelled on one side and a stone Tudor fireplace. The wood sill in front of the south window is carved with crosses.

The ante chapel contains an oak and plaster screen. The chapel, added by Sir William Compton, has screens with earlier panels carved on both sides and 20th-century stained glass.

Compton Wynyates is described as the most perfect picture-book house of the Early Tudor decades. The house was formerly moated and has been owned by the Compton family since at least the early 13th century.