Abbots Leigh Place

Abbots Leigh Place is a country house dated 1892, designed by Frederick C Lees for Major General Sir Wykham Lee Pemberton. The house is built in an eclectic English 16th and 17th century style, and represents a well-preserved example of late 19th century domestic architecture influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Drawings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895 and published in The Builder on 13 April 1895.

The building is constructed of red brick with dressed stone details and parging in rectangular panels to the upper storey. It comprises two storeys and an attic, with the main block forming a double pile with cross gables and dormers. To the east is a further cross range with a single storey service wing at the north end. The structure features seven brick chimney stacks with tall shafts, some diagonally arranged with linking cornices. The ridge of the east cross range bears the leaded base of a former bellcote.

The entrance front of the main block is approached through a walled forecourt and displays an E-shaped plan with three short projecting wings alternating with two gabled dormers on the main roof. The jettied gables to the wings and the eaves are supported on closely set timber brackets. A single storey stone entrance porch spans the width of the central wing, featuring a wide basket-arched doorway set in a moulded rectangular frame with fleurons. The panelled timber double doors are flanked by single light windows with transoms, flanked by pilasters on pedestals with carved foliage capitals. The porch is crowned by an entablature with a pulvinated frieze and brick parapet, broken at the centre by a carved stone escutcheon in an arched frame. In the gable end above the porch is a five-light stone mullioned casement and a four-light timber framed casement to the attic storey below the framed gable.

To the right of the central wing is a large stone mullioned and transomed window of four by four lights serving the hall. A gabled, timber framed and glazed conservatory on a brick base projects from the right hand wing, with a four-light stone mullioned casement to the first floor and a four-light timber framed casement in the gable above. Similar stone mullioned windows appear on both floors to the left of the central wing, with timber frame two and three-light casements to the first floor of the left hand wing and gable end of the east range. The central stack stands on the east range gable end wall.

The west front features a cross gabled central element with a central arched stone-framed doorway with fanlight, flanked by stone-framed sidelights with transoms. Above the doorway in the projecting parged first floor wall is a four-light timber framed casement, with a similar three-light casement in the parged end wall to the right. To the left, above the gable, stands a tall framed gabled dormer with casement, flanked by a tall brick stack with weathered offsets. Further left is a large single storey semi-circular bay window of stone frame with seven lights and single transom, surmounted by a stone moulded cornice with brick parapet.

The south or garden front of the main block features three gabled bays with parged first floor jettied out on shaped brackets. On the ground floor, a canted stone-framed bay window occupies each bay: at each end, three lights to the front with single side lights and upper transoms, whilst the central window is similar but contains a stone arched doorway with fanlight. On the first floor, a timber frame canted oriel window appears in each end bay with three lights to the front and single side lights, with two three-light casements in the central bay, all with single upper transoms. A four-light timber framed casement occupies each framed gable. To the right of the main south front is an entry porch with lean-to roof, parged first floor and gabled roof dormer above. Further right is the gabled end of the lower east range with a four-light stone-framed ground floor casement and an oriel matching those to the left on the first floor. Similar windows appear in the cross gable on the east side of the east range. Throughout the building, the upper lights of all windows are generally filled with rectangular leaded panes.

On the south side of the house a broad terrace features an open balustrade with shaped balusters in bays between piers capped by ball finials. Flights of stone steps lead to the garden at either end of the terrace and in the centre, with curved steps and balustrades.

Interior

The interior is entered through the stairwell from the porch by panelled double doors with upper lights glazed with leaded bottle glass and panels of similar glazing above. The hall to the right rises through two storeys and is entered through a three bay screen arcade with galleries above. Both galleries are reached from the open well staircase. A cantilevered quadrant over the south east corner of the hall links both galleries. The panelled newels and gallery piers have balustrades with turned balusters. A cross-beamed ceiling spans the hall with turned pendant drops.

The hall fireplace on the south side displays an overmantel of 17th century Breton carved oak panels, originally sliding doors from a lit-clos, decorated with wheel motifs. Other principal rooms retain original joinery. The drawing room and morning room contain Adam style fireplaces.