Delamere House And Barn Attached On West

WYMONDLEY ARCH ROAD TL 2128 (East side) Great Wymondley

10/140 Delamere House and 9.5.52 barn attached on W

GV II*

Manor house and attached barn. W wing mid C15, rest of house rebuilt mid C17 probably by the Pulter family. C17 barn adjoining on W. House of narrow red brick incorporating timber frame of older W wing. Steep old red tile roofs. Timber framed barn with dark weatherboarding and steep pitched roof now slated. A wide 2-storeys, cellar, and attics house facing S, set back from the road. 2-rooms wide plan with gable chimneys, entrance in middle to passage leading to rear staircase flanked by service rooms. The main rooms were the hall on the W, the parlour on the E, each with a closet flanking the internal gable chimney lit by a front window next the corner, symmetrical S front, but entrance slightly off-centre. 4 windows to each floor and 2 dormers in shaped gables linked to the parapet, above a moulded brick cornice with dentils. Hollow chamfered mullions and surrounds to windows of plastered brick, with transoms to ground floor windows. 4-lights casement windows to middle, 2-lights to outer corners, 3-lights to attic dormers. North front has present entrance, 2 pointed steep gables of unequal size, mullioned windows irregularly disposed and with cornices over those on 1st floor. Old oak door, nail-studded, oak staircase with turned balusters, jowled posts of timber frame of former W wing now incorporated, doorway with 4-centred head under staircase giving access to cellars extending formerly under W wing now demolished (Oldfield c.1700 notes foundations indicating a house of three times the present size). Chamfered arched fireplaces with 4-centred arches generally but from 3-centred. 2 rooms have early C17 panelling and chimneypieces. Elaborate overmantle to main W room on ground floor with Ionic columns framing arcaded panels and carrying an entablature with strapwork frieze, continued around the room. Attached Barn on W of three bays facing S into yard. Jowled posts, long straight tension braces, straight braces to tie-beams, one purlin to each slope of clasped-purlin roof, trusses with inclined queen-struts to collars. Face-halved bladed scarf joint in wallplate. The house is said to have been associated with Cardinal Wolsey. (RCHM (1911)106: VCH (1912)182, 185: Kelly (1914)295: Pevsner (1977)154: RCHM Typescript: inf Mr. Farris).

Listing NGR: TL2131728368