Little North Court North Court North Court House

Large house at Shorwell, originally comprising three separate units at the time of survey. The building was begun by Sir John Leigh in 1615 and completed in 1629 by his son Barnaby Leigh. Exterior alterations and interior reconstruction were carried out in the early 18th century by Sir John Leigh's grandson Barnabas Evelyn Leigh. A north-west wing was added in 1905 by Edwin Lutyens for General and Mrs R W Disney Leigh.

The original part is an L-shaped, three-storey building constructed of coursed Isle of Wight stone rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roof with brick chimneystack. The principal east front has eight windows, mostly casements with stone mullioned and transom frames. A stringcourse between the first and second floors ramps up to form dripstones. The north section projects with a gable surmounted by tall finials at the apex and angles. The remainder of this front has three gables, each with similar finials at apexes and bases. A central porch, approached up five steps, has a shaped gable with finials over containing a cartouche bearing the arms of Sir John Leigh and the date 1615, with early 18th-century moulded architraves with keystone. On either side of the porch is a two-storey bay of two tiers of five lights, each top bearing four finials.

The south front has two windows, one a two-tier five-light Victorian bay. The north or entrance front was originally of five bays but a sixth bay was added in 1905 by Edwin Lutyens in matching style to include a Billiard Room. Three gables with stone finials are present. Stringcourses appear above ground floor and first floor. The original part has one stone mullioned window to the attic, while other windows are twentieth-century cross casements in eighteenth-century stone architraves with keystones. A shaped projecting stone porch with finials and shield bears the date 1637 but was actually added in the early 18th century. The north-western bay has a mullioned window on the second floor and a three-tier five-light window to the billiard room. Two eighteenth-century lead rainwater heads and pipes serve this elevation.

Attached to the north-west is Little North Court, a former late 17th or early 18th-century brewhouse and bake-house altered around 1905, bearing the initials of May Charlotte Julia Leith. It is two to three storeys of stone rubble with slate roof and clustered brick chimneystack. The left side gable has elaborate stone finials at apex and sides. Windows are 1:3:2 mullioned with hood moulding. A doorcase to the left is set under a relieving arch. A stone doorcase under relieving arch with dripmould and side light has a modern plank door.

The entrance hall to North Court was refurnished in the early 18th century and features a modillion eaves cornice. Six panelled doors are present, along with two round-headed arches with keystone and impost blocks and five round-headed recesses. Fragments of Flemish 16th-century glass remain in the windows. An early 18th-century well staircase has scrolled tread ends and three balusters to each tread consisting of one plain, one twisted and one fluted baluster. The fluted column newel post is elaborate with scrolled knop. The stairwell is lit by a Venetian window similar to those at Gatcombe House and Wolverton Manor.

The Dining Room features an early 19th-century marble fireplace with engaged Tuscan columns and iron firegrate. The Drawing Room has an early 18th-century cornice and ovolo-moulded door surrounds. The Library has a wooden overmantel from the Music Room with painted Benet coat of arms, end pilasters, one male and one female term in the centre and two round-headed arches. The cornice displays two fabulous beasts and a male and female mask.

The house remained with the Leigh family until the 1790s when it was purchased by Richard Briel, an eminent art collector and friend of Horace Walpole. It subsequently descended to the Benetts and then to General Sir James Willoughby Gordon, who had been Quarter-master General to the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War of 1812. His grand-daughter Mary Gordon, later Mrs Disney Leigh, was a cousin of the poet Algernon Swinburne, who wrote much of his epic poem Atalanta in Corydon in the library at North Court.