Weald Manor

WEALD MANOR

A large house with east and north wings of late 17th-century origin, substantially remodelled and extended to a quadrangular plan in 1742. The house was further refurbished and its courtyard infilled around 1900.

The exterior is built of coursed rubble limestone with ashlar dressings and parapets. The south front features better-dressed stone, with part rendered. Hipped roofs carry stone slates to the outer pitches and 20th-century tiles to the inner pitches. The ashlar chimneys have rows of square shafts linked by cornice tops. The building stands two storeys high with an attic storey.

The east front displays six main bays with narrow chimney bays flanking the centre in a rhythm of 2:1:2:1:2. A projecting plinth, semi-dressed quoins, and a coped parapet with a string below and sunk panels in unmoulded architraves characterise this elevation. The windows are 2-pane sashes of around 1900 with thick ovolo-moulded glazing bars, all set in original moulded stone architrave surrounds. The chimney bays contain small single lights with similar glazing bars and surrounds. Central windows all have rubble stone relieving arches. Three hipped dormers are mostly hidden by the parapet. A central doorway with double half-glazed doors in an architrave frame provides access. A fine 18th-century stone porch, possibly an addition, features Doric columns, a cornice, pediment, and large urn finial. The porch has a Latin inscription on the frieze and later glazed infill with a radiating fanlight.

The north front has six bays with a similar parapet, sashes and dormers, but with a building break between bays 4 and 5. A first-floor sash in one bay has been altered to a matching 2-light casement. The west front contains five bays of sashes and a simpler parapet without raised surrounds to the panels. The left bay has been altered with a door, a 20th-century single light, and a 20th-century port-hole window to the stairs. A central wide door of around 1900 occupies a 18th-century stone porch with entablature on Doric columns. An octagonal stair turret and a former outbuilding converted to a studio as part of the 1900 project stand to the right. The south front, also with a simpler parapet, has six bays of sashes to the first floor on the left, altered ground-floor fenestration, and a 19th to 20th-century canted bay window to the right.

The interior retains many features of 1742, including a fine range of stone fireplaces with moulded architraves and cornices. The fireplaces in the hall and drawing room are especially notable, both featuring open pediments with pedestals. The drawing room fireplace is particularly large, with two Ionic columns to either side, a tall moulded pedestal, and carved putti seated on the blocking course of the pediment. A ground-floor room in the south-east corner contains a canted stone niche, panelled and flanked by composite pilasters on high pedestals, with a rosette boss to the soffit. This niche may be reassembled from fragments and is not in its original position. Another stone niche is set into the passage between the hall and the north-east dining room. This niche has a shell top, fluted pilasters with acanthus capitals, stone shelves, and a low stone basin. The passage between rooms above on the first floor contains a built-in wooden chest of drawers of contemporary date.

The south-east bedroom alone retains late 17th-century decoration, comprising raised and fielded wooden panelling and cornice, and a bolection-moulded stone fireplace. Other rooms have 18th-century plaster ceiling cornices, either with modillions and small rosettes or with egg and dart ornament. Some rooms, such as the dining room, have matching 19th to 20th-century cornices. The drawing room has 18th-century moulded skirtings, a dado rail and window surround, but features 20th-century wall panels and a circa 1900 plaster ceiling. The staircase and screen of Ionic columns in the hall are also of circa 1900. A 17th to 18th-century stone fireplace with a depressed arch survives in the kitchen.