Mountbatten House And Attached Garden Walls

Mountbatten House and the attached garden walls are a manor house dating from the late 17th century, with interior remodeling around 1740 and a 19th-century addition. It was likely built for Charles Knottesford. The structure features red English bond brick with stone pilasters, dressings, an entablature, a cornice, and a parapet. It has a double-span slate hipped roof behind the parapet and brick internal stacks. The house has a central staircase plan, is two storeys high with an attic, and has a two-storey front with a five-window range. Ionic giant angle pilasters frame the central stone doorcase, which is adorned with Tuscan half-columns and pilasters, along with a segmental pediment that breaks forward at each side. The windows are 15-pane sashes set in moulded stone architraves with keystones and a sill band on the ground floor. A deep entablature and modillion cornice enhance the exterior, along with a parapet featuring balustrading above each bay and corner urns. The garden front is similar but has a brick parapet that is recessed above each bay and lacks urns. The return sides have blind windows, with the right side featuring a central 20th-century attic window and the left side having attic casements. A two-bay addition on the left has a pitched roof, and all sashes are in moulded stone frames.

Inside, there is a central hall and a through passage, with a room on the garden front that has dados made partly of early 17th-century panelling from The Old Castle. This room also features a Jacobean-style fireplace and overmantel, possibly incorporating some old woodwork. A good dog-leg staircase with a scrolled open string and three column-on-vase balusters leads to each tread. The rooms to the left and right of the entrance have carved wooden chimneypieces and moulded doorcases, along with late 17th-century moulded cornices. Throughout the house, there are two- and six-panelled doors, and the first floor has eared door architraves. A back staircase with turned balusters is also present. The brick garden walls are attached at the left and right, forming right angles on the right garden front. The interior was remodeled after a fire around 1740.