Summers Place

Summers Place is a country house located within landscaped gardens, dating to circa 1865, built in a mixed Neo-Gothic and French Renaissance style. The house is constructed of red brick with Bath stone dressings, and has plain tiled roofs with ridge cresting. The asymmetrical design is complicated by a nearly symmetrical plan where the symmetry of the plan is almost concealed by the asymmetry of the fenestration.

The entrance elevation is two storeys high, with garrets in cross-wings. The building follows an E-plan with a central entrance projection and end wings incorporating re-entrant angle blocks, all gabled with parapets, kneelers, and finials. The front displays an almost regular nine-window arrangement, with two gabled semi-dormers flanking the entrance. Canted bays are present on the endmost wings; the one to the right is two-storey high and embattled, while the one to the left extends only to the first floor, featuring a hipped roof and a full-width, deeply projecting square bay. A rounded bay with a parapet is found on the ground floor of the re-entrant angle wing adjoining the main block. A parapetted extension partially obscures the ground floor on the left side. A two-storey traceried pointed-arched stair window is located on the re-entrant angle wing to the right. The central projection is distinguished by octagonal corner buttresses rising to gable height, with machicolated caps and gargoyles at string level over the first floor. A very tall first-floor oriel is situated on a semi-circular plan, with a stepped stone conical roof, panelled tracery below the windows, and moulded stiff-leaf decoration to its underside. All windows are transomed and mullioned, with some featuring leading and stained glass, particularly in the staircase window. A three-centred arch provides access to the entrance on the ground floor of the central projection, featuring a squared surround on shafts, a hood mould with decorated spandrels, and a panelled boarded door with traceried tops to the panels. The rear elevation mirrors the front, with a first-floor oriel-turret at the left corner, topped with a steep conical roof.

The interior of the hall displays a neo-Jacobean plaster ceiling with an arcaded screen, and a large stone neo-French Gothic hooded fireplace with traceried panelling, a heavily moulded surround, and a four-centred arch. The library contains bookcases with glazing and nail-head decoration, and a fireplace with a compartmented overmantel framing a mirror, with a black tile fire-surround depicting storks in white and gold, and a stone four-centred arched fireplace. The staircase is imperial, incorporating short intermediate flights, and features open traceried balustrades.