Mottisfont Abbey House

Mottisfont Abbey House is a large country house developed from an Augustinian priory founded in 1201. Following the dissolution, Lord Sandys acquired the site and converted the nave and domestic buildings into a residence between 1538 and 1540. The house was substantially remodelled, with the south range added around 1740 and nearly all windows and doors replaced during the 18th and 19th centuries. The monastic domestic buildings were demolished. The structure is built of ashlar stone and brick with stone dressings, and is roofed with old plain tiles.

The plan incorporates the 13th-century nave and crossing in the north range, which was encased and made into a two-and-a-half-storey structure with the principal floor at first-floor level. The south range is brick with stone dressings, originally 16th-century but largely remodelled in the 18th century. It features a pedimented centre flanked by canted links added in the mid-19th century. Staircase towers of 18th and 19th-century date flank each side. At each end of the range, projecting stone wings incorporate the south transept, chapter house, and cellarium range. These are all three storeys with the principal floor at first-floor level.

The south front presents a three-storey U-shaped group with a central section of three bays in brick with stone quoins, strings between floors, and parapet copings. The basement contains a six-panel door and a large square fanlight with circular and segmental glazing. The first floor has 12-pane sashes and the second floor 9-pane sashes, all in flush rusticated stone surrounds. Above the pediment sits a lunette in the tympanum. Double projections of one bay each flank the centre part. The inner projections, added in the 19th century replacing 16th-century work, are of low three storeys with splayed angles and small leaded stone casements. Behind the parapet sits a hipped roof against the outer projection, which extends further and features full-height corner pilasters, similar strings and parapets, and 12-pane sashes on each floor. Each end of the south front comprises 18th-century stone-encased tall, wide wings. The left wing has a terrace in front over the monastic cellarium, whilst the right wing has early 20th-century steps in front over a passage to the chapter house. On the first and second floors of these wings are canted bays with glazed doors in stone rusticated surrounds and Tuscan door-cases, 12-pane sashes on the angles, and 9-pane sashes on the second floor. A second-floor string and tall parapet run across. 16th-century stone stacks stand on the outside walls of the wings, with a brick stack on the inner wall and three stacks behind the centre roof. Set low on the side of the right wing is the jamb of a window to the chapter house, featuring a mosaic by Boris Anrep.

The north front encloses the north nave wall, buttresses, and transept arch. It comprises six bays in two storeys with an attic. 16th-century mullioned windows are present, along with 18th-century first-floor sashes and pedimented dormers. The transept arch features trumpet scallops with a Venetian window beneath, and a second floor above with corner 16th-century stacks. A parapet with ball finials crowns the elevation. The east front features an arch with fanciful trumpet scallops, originally serving the south chapel.

Internally, the basement contains 13th-century blank arcading on the south nave wall at the west end. The south cellarium features short central circular piers and chamfered ribs. A 16th-century panelled room occupies the centre. Between the crossing and nave stands a pulpitum made in the early 16th century, with a four-centred arch and panelling. To the south, parts of the south transept retain the archway into the chapter house, which comprises three vaulted bays with wallshafts. On the principal first floor of the north range, the main rooms are 19th and 20th-century insertions, though they incorporate brought-in fireplaces and retain exposed parts of the south windows of the nave and the chancel arch. The south range contains a passage and 19th-century staircases in projecting bays. The west wing contains a drawing room designed by Rex Whistler, added in 1938-9. The other wing contains a 19th-century morning room.

The house was given to the National Trust in 1957.