Nunwell House

Nunwell House is a great house on the Isle of Wight with origins dating from 1607 onwards, when Sir John Oglander built the original E-shaped structure comprising the centre portion and the south half of the west wing. The house has been substantially extended and remodelled over three centuries, with major phases of building in 1716, the late 18th century, and the 19th century.

The central block was refronted around 1716 by William Oglander and hung with red mathematical tiles in Flemish bond over an Isle of Wight stone plinth. It is faced in two storeys with attics and basement, arranged across five windows. The roof is slate with a wooden dentilled eaves cornice and three flat-roofed dormers containing casement windows. The windows have stone surrounds with keystones; first-floor windows feature wide glazing bars whilst ground-floor windows are wooden cross windows. The central feature is a stone doorcase with a rusticated round-headed surround, keystone cornice and capitals, surmounted by a curved double door with six-fielded panels.

The south part of the west wing is early 17th century, two storeys with two windows in the east elevation. Its west elevation is constructed of Isle of Wight stone rubble with red brick dressings and a slate roof. The first floor has cross-shaped windows whilst the ground floor retains plain mullioned windows. The south elevation was refaced in early 19th-century red brick in Flemish bond, with three-light modern mullioned and transomed windows to the first floor and mullioned and transomed windows above. The east elevation shows 17th-century brickwork in English bond with stone quoins. An 18th-century rainwater head is present. A stone plaque bearing the shield of the Aulmer family and their motto "Hallelujah" is mounted on this elevation. The ground floor contains an early 17th-century four-light stone ovolo-moulded mullioned window with a brick relieving arch.

The north part of the west wing is late 17th or early 18th century, built of stone rubble with red brick dressings and a slate roof with brick chimneystacks and stone coping with kneelers. It rises to three storeys with attics across three windows, and features two modern cambered dormers. The upper floors have cross-mullioned windows whilst the ground floor retains plain mullioned windows; the right-hand windows have cambered head linings. The north elevation is also mullioned.

The east wing appears mainly 18th century, though with a late 19th-century addition. The principal front faces east and is built in black brick in header bond with red brick dressings and stone bands between floors. The roof is slate with three brick chimneystacks. The elevation rises to three storeys across seven bays and terminates in a parapet with four ball finials, a stone-moulded cornice and bands between floors. The central feature is a three-light canted bay extending through all floors. The second floor has twelve-paned sashes with wide glazing bars, the first floor has twelve-pane sashes with narrower glazing bars, and the ground floor has eighteen-pane sashes with narrow glazing bars. The first floor features French windows with an iron balconette, and the ground floor a French window. A late 19th-century loggia is attached to the south of the east wing, constructed of brick with a central pediment to its east elevation and a round-headed doorcase with impost blocks flanked by two sashes. The southern elevation has two stone Tuscan columns and two half-columns, with stone coping to the parapet and four ball finials. A sundial is attached to the south end of the east wing. The west elevation contains a late 19th-century two-storey oriel window with canted stone bay and balustrading section.

To the north of the east wing is a Dining Room extension of 1896, a single storey of red brick with a parapet topped by stone coping and two ball finials. It features one Venetian window. Further north is a Billiard Room of 1906, also a single storey of red brick. Its principal north front has a central projecting pedimental gable rising through a panelled parapet with obelisk finials at the ends. A central round-headed doorcase with keystone is surmounted by a stone shield bearing the Oglander family motto. Two cambered twelve-pane sashes flank this feature. The east front has pilasters and ball finials to its parapet, with one cambered twelve-pane sash.

The former Brewhouse, now a tea and gift shop, comprises a ground floor of 18th-century stone rubble with plinth and a first floor of early 19th-century brickwork in Flemish bond, with a slate roof. Two casement windows light the ground floor, and an 18th-century flush-panelled door provides access. To the west, a curved brick wall leads to early 19th-century outbuildings including a coal house in English bond brickwork.

The interior of the central block contains a Hall with early 18th-century fielded panelling with dado rails and a stone fireplace with eaved architrave, beneath a plastered ceiling with octagonal-shaped motifs. The first floor Equerries room retains early 17th-century oak panelling and a marble fireplace. Several 18th-century six-fielded panelled doors are distributed across the first floor, alongside a fireplace with an early 19th-century basket grate and a two-panelled door. The roof structure is of through-purlin construction.

The south part of the west wing contains an early 17th-century dogleg staircase with handrail and midrail, topped by a square newel post with knop. Early 17th-century panelling is present. The King's Room, where Charles I is reputed to have stayed, retains period architectural detail though its furnishings are of more recent date.

The north part of the west wing features a late 17th-century well staircase with corner posts and turned balusters to lower floors, with splat balusters to the attic storey, and a through-purlin roof. A bedroom in this section contains a late 17th or early 18th-century deeply carved cornice of unusual character, decorated with palmettes and inverted swags supported on six heraldic shields. The fireplace retains an eaved architrave and early 19th-century basket grate.

The east wing contains a circa 1716 well staircase with a ramped handrail, columned newel posts and three turned balusters to each step, with scrolled tread ends featuring triglyphs and dado panelling.

The Dining Room is furnished with a late 18th-century fireplace featuring a central panel of a reclining female figure with cupids and a frieze of swags with urns at the corners, all beneath an eaved architrave. Six-panelled mahogany doors are present.

The Library contains a late 18th-century marble fireplace with a central oval panel flanked by cherubs, a frieze of swags and urn paterae beneath tapering pilasters. An elaborate late 18th-century plastered ceiling above displays floral baskets, floral swags and lyres at the corners, superimposed with the serpent and staff of Aesculapius. The cornice features triglyphs, paterae and ovolo moulding. Door surrounds are ornamented with quivers, swags and paterae. Two fine-quality six-panelled doors enhance the space.

The Morning Room contains early 18th-century panelling, a six-fielded panelled door and a marble fireplace with eared architrave, shell and swag frieze, topped by a fine late 18th or early 19th-century basket grate.

The Dining Room of 1896 incorporates a resited late 18th-century marble fireplace with a panel featuring a reclining female figure with two doves.

The Kitchen contains a wide chamfered beam with run-out stops. The cellars are spanned by a spine beam with lamb's-tongue stops.

The Music Room and Billiard Room feature a marble fireplace and a square louvred light.

The former Brewhouse contains a late 18th-century cambered arched fireplace and a cambered bread oven with an iron door.

Nunwell House is one of the Domesday Manors and one of the most notable houses on the Isle of Wight. It has been the home of the Oglander family from circa 1100 to circa 1980, most famously housing Sir John Oglander the diarist.