Moyns Park

Moyns Park

A mansion built in the late 16th century for Thomas Gent, incorporating part of an earlier courtyard house dating from around 1500. The building has been substantially altered in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The structure is mainly of red brick laid in English bond with limestone dressings, partly timber framed with brick nogging and plaster. The roof is of handmade red clay tiles and lead. The plan is half-H shaped with aspect to the north-west, and wings extending to the south-east. The main range is of two storeys with a cellar and attics, and has four external chimney stacks to the rear, of which three are original. The two rear wings are each of two storeys with an end chimney stack. 19th-century extensions flank the south-east ends of both wings, and a single-storey 19th-century extension extends to the rear of the main range.

The earliest part of the building is at the north-west end of the south-west wing, consisting of two bays of a single-span structure facing north-east. In the late 16th century, a second range was added to the south-west, enclosing the original rear windows, and a crosswing of three bays was added at the south-east end. The date of the north-east wing is uncertain but is probably earlier than the main range. The north-west elevation is symmetrical, featuring a central rectangular porch with stone pinnacles at the corners, continuing upwards as a semi-octagonal bay with flat roof above the first floor window. There are two further semi-octagonal bays with flat roofs of similar height. Narrow gables rise between the bays, a storey higher, and wider gables flank each side, all with moulded brick pinnacles at the base and apex. Two moulded brick string courses are positioned at lintel height. The outer doorway has a moulded flat head and jambs with plain stops at half-height, and above it is a recessed panel containing the Moyne arms, which is modern. The inner doorway has different mouldings and more elaborate stops. To the left of the porch is a cellar window, and to each side are high ground-floor windows with diamond leaded lights containing much early glass. Mullioned and transomed windows with full ovolo moulding appear on three sides of each bay at each storey, and on three storeys between and to each side. The two outer ground floor windows are much restored; all others are original with diamond leaded early glass in all the upper lights of the gable windows. The rear elevation of the main range has five similar windows and four more in gabled dormers, with the upper lights of the latter featuring diamond leaded early glass. There are three groups of octagonal chimney shafts arranged 2-1-1, with moulded bases and restored caps; originally there would have been four to complete the symmetry, but the most north-easterly is a plain modern replacement. The next stack is corbelled out from the wall at first floor level.

The most notable other elevation is the north-east side of the south-west wing. It has a long jetty with two decayed plain brackets, underbuilt with brick at the right end. The framing is otherwise exposed and close studded with two fragments of external curved bracing, infilled with red brick of 16th-century and 20th-century date. The bay at the right end has two attached shafts with moulded bases and capitals and drooping projections, and a restored oriel; these features could date from around 1500 or earlier. Other ornamental features date from around 1580 and include two projecting gables with bressumers, depressed arch brackets and bargeboards carved with folded leaf and grotesque designs, and pendants. The third gable, on the crosswing at the left, has carved bargeboards. There are five 17th-century wrought iron casements and two late 16th-century glazed windows with moulded mullions. The south-west sides of both rear wings were jettied. That of the north-east wing has been underbuilt with 18th-century brick in Flemish bond, with exposed framing above infilled with 16th-century and 20th-century brick. That of the south-west wing has original brick in English bond below the jetty and exposed framing and brick nogging above, much restored, in the form of four gables.

Interior

The hall, to the south-west of the main door, has exposed ceiling beams and joists of vertical section, and painted late 16th-century panelling to half-height, which is not original. The drawing room, to the south-west, has 18th-century pine panelling, stripped of paint. The library, north-east of the hall, has late 16th-century panelling. The stair, to the south-east of the hall, is mainly reproduction but retains a late 16th-century carved newel and half-newel. The basement under the library has a chamfered beam, and on one wall there is moulded brick corbelling which supports the fireplace above. On the first floor of the main range, the north-east room has a stone hearth surround with moulded lintel and jambs of late 16th-century date, and the next room retains an original moulded doorway. The roof of the main range has butt-purlins, cambered collars of unusual flattened W-profile, and original bridging beams forming a ceiling at half-height. The rear dormers are original. The north-east wing has jowled posts, chamfered axial beams, and 18th-century panelling and finishes on the upper floor.

On the ground floor of the south-west wing there is an original Tudor doorhead, a stone hearth surround with depressed arch and floral carving in the spandrels, and one roll-moulded beam carved with folded leaves and a continuous threaded shaft, possibly of heraldic significance, of early 16th-century date, along with a modern reproduction. There is one original window to the south-west with roll-moulded mullions and iron stiffening bars, now with modern glazing, and one 16th-century door of moulded vertical planks. The stair to the first floor has a round newel post and oak treads and risers, and is of late 16th-century date, having been inserted as it severs an external brace in the original rear wall, now enclosed by the late 16th-century range. In the upper part of the same wall there is a complete unglazed window with three diamond mullions, and another with the mullions removed, now blocked. A stair of solid oak treads rises to the attic. The roof over the two north-west bays has high arched chamfered collars without wind bracing; the common rafters have been replaced. The roof of the crosswing at the south-east end has high and low collars, both arch-braced, and arched wind-bracing.

Historical context

The site is moated. According to Morant, Thomas Gent, Sergeant at Law from 1584 and Baron of the Exchequer from 1588, who died in 1593, 'added the stately front to the old building at Moynes'.