Compton Beauchamp House And Walling And Attached Bridge To North

Compton Beauchamp House is a Grade I listed country house with substantial 16th-century origins, comprehensively remodelled and refaced around 1710. The house is set within a moated courtyard and approached by a stone bridge.

The 16th-century house was owned by the Fettiplace family, possibly built by Sir Thomas Fettiplace who acquired the manor in the early 16th century. The building was substantially rebuilt in the late 16th century, evidenced by a stone inscription to the right wall of the front entrance passage dated M. Bressels Fettiplace 1583. Around 1710, the house was extensively remodelled internally and given a new front elevation by Edward Richards, likely following his marriage to Rachel, daughter of Sir Edmund Warreford of Sevenhampton.

The house follows a courtyard plan and is constructed in limestone ashlar to the facade, with the 16th-century body of the house in brick with limestone quoins and dressings. It is roofed with stone slate and has brick chimney stacks. The architectural style is Baroque, comprising two storeys and an attic.

The principal facade displays a 2:3:2 composition with the central three bays brought forward. The central bay has a late 19th-century six-panelled double door with a flat arch of voussoirs and plain architrave, while early 18th-century sashes occupy all windows. The ground floor windows in the central three bays have flat arches of voussoirs and plain architrave; the first floor and attic windows have moulded architraves, with first floor windows featuring moulded drips. The side bay windows have plain architraves with moulded drips to the ground floor and moulded architraves to the first floor. The central three bays feature banded rustication to the ground floor, large Doric pilasters rising to a moulded cornice and balustraded parapet.

The courtyard elevations preserve a sequence of windows of various dates. The left wall contains two-light late 16th-century cavetto-moulded stone-mullioned windows, two-light late 17th- or early 18th-century leaded casements, one two-light late 16th-century cavetto-moulded stone-mullioned window, and two two-light early 16th-century stone-mullioned windows with arched heads. Three 16th-century lateral chimney stacks rise from this wall. The wall opposite the entry has four-light late 17th- or early 18th-century leaded casements. The right wall displays two two-light late 16th-century cavetto-moulded stone-mullioned windows and four late 17th- or early 18th-century four-light leaded casements, with two 16th-century lateral stacks. The rear elevation has late 19th-century sashes and 16th-century stacks, with gabled roofs to the sides and rear.

Internally, the rear room retains a complete set of late 16th-century moulded beams and joists. The rear right room contains a fireplace of circa 1710 with bolection-moulded architrave flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters with pulvinated frieze, complemented by moulded dado rail and skirting of the same period. Two dog-leg staircases occupy the rear of the house, both dating to circa 1710, fitted with closed strings, turned balusters, moulded wall strings, and bolection-moulded panelling to their dados. One staircase (rear left) has bolection-moulded panelling; the other (rear right) has plain fielded panelling. The first floor includes a gallery to the right with bolection-moulded panelling; several panels retain painted decoration of circa 1710 in oriental style depicting birds, bamboo and similar motifs. The rear right room has panelling of circa 1740 with a 16th-century fireplace featuring a bolection-moulded overmantle. Adjoining rooms contain bolection-moulded panelling, as does the front left room. Late 16th-century fireplaces with moulded stone surrounds are distributed throughout.

The house is approached by a limestone ashlar bridge carried over the moat, with a balustraded parapet that sweeps round to a balustraded wall terminating in square corner piers.