Peasmarsh Place

Peasmarsh Place is a former manor house, now a residential house for the elderly, with a core dating to 1616. It underwent extensive early 19th-century alterations, largely obscured by a comprehensive refacing and remodelling in 1937 by Sir Edwin Cooper for Lord Davenport, undertaken on earlier foundations. These foundations may be the remains of a 12th-century house that was known to have occupied the site.

The house is built in a Neo-Georgian style, constructed of red brick with stone dressings and a tiled roof. It’s roughly L-shaped, comprising three parallel ranges, and features a west elevation of five bays. A parapet with stone coping partially conceals the hipped roof. The first floor has two "oeil de boeuf" (bullseye) windows at each end, and three twelve-pane sash windows with horns and wooden shutters. The ground floor has four similar windows. A florid Neo-Georgian doorcase centers the entrance, featuring an open pediment, two columns with fluted capitals, and two pilasters. Above the door is a deeply carved fruit and floral swag over a semi-circular fanlight, surmounted by a stone plaque displaying the crest of the Davenport family. Double six-panelled doors are flanked by sidelights. Two brick chimneystacks are present.

The south elevation has eleven windows, including an "oeil de boeuf" window on the first floor’s left end and two lancets below. Other windows are twelve-, ten-, and fifteen-pane sashes with shutters, with two three-light canted bays extending through two floors at each end. The ground floor also includes two French windows. The east elevation has five twelve-pane sashes with horns and shutters.

The interior retains an early 19th-century service staircase with a mahogany handrail, featuring two stick balusters per tread and a turned newel post. The remaining interior features are the work of Sir Edwin Cooper. The entrance hall boasts early 18th-century style panelling, a cornice with ovolo moulding, a dado rail, moulded skirting boards, and six fielded panelled doors. A moulded round-headed arch with a wreath leads to the hall corridor. There is a wooden fireplace of early 18th-century type with a deep mantlepiece featuring eared architraves with rosettes and a panel with a floral swag. A glazed screen by Sir Edwin Cooper separates the front door from the entrance hall. The hall corridor has a ceiling of octagonal coffered panels, with four roundels featuring wreaths on the walls and a pedimented door surround. The staircase hall has a round-headed arch with a wreath, and a large well staircase with a glazed roof above, featuring two turned balusters to each tread and an oak handrail terminating in a spiral newel post. A dado rail is also present. The Drawing Room contains a late 18th-century Adam style wooden fireplace with rams' heads, rosettes, and swags. The Boudoir features a brought-in late 18th-century wooden fireplace with three panels of swags and rosettes. Old foundations were reported beneath the dining room, but were not visible during the survey. Around 1850, the property was purchased by Charles Liddell, a brother of Lord Ravensworth and an engineer who was a pupil of George Stevenson. It was at Peasmarsh Place that his niece, Alice Liddell, first heard the stories which were later published as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and Lewis Carroll was a frequent visitor to the house.