Mansion House

Mansion House

This house in Blisland dates from the late 16th century or earlier and was probably extended and partly remodelled after 1627 for Obadiah Reynolds, as evidenced by a datestone of 1636 found in a first floor room. The building is constructed of granite rubble with large granite quoins and has renewed scantle slate roofs with gabled and hipped ends. The roof also features circa early 17th-century moulded granite axial and gable end stacks.

The original plan is uncertain, though according to historical records the late 16th-century house consisted of a great hall with spiral stone staircase and an adjoining parlour. In circa 1627, when granted to Obadiah Reynolds, the house was extended. The structure was converted into a series of cottages in the 18th or 19th century, then converted back into a single house and restored in the late 20th century. At the end of the 18th century, the great embattled gateway that originally formed the approach was removed to Lavethan.

The house is arranged around a courtyard in an overall U-shaped plan, with ranges on the south, west and north sides and a high wall on the east which partly forms the end wall to a carriage house and stables to the north west of Newton House. It is possible that a service wing on the east has been demolished. The ground slopes down gradually from north to south and east.

The through passage in the south range is roughly in line with the cross passage in the north range, with the two passages linked by a covered way in the courtyard under a pentice roof against the west wing. The entrance is through a rebuilt two-storey porch on the south side, probably added in circa early to mid 17th century and rebuilt in the late 20th century.

The south wing has a two-room and passage plan with an offset rear door. A partition has been removed on the higher west side of the passage, and there is a thick wall with an axial stack on the lower east side. The east room was heated by this stack, and there is a further room to the east which appears to have been added circa 18th century, possibly on the site of an earlier service range. The west room is heated by an axial stack, shared with the fireplace heating the southern room of the west wing. The northern room of the west wing is heated by an end stack and features a circa 18th-century panelled screen dividing the two rooms. Above the south wing is a principal room, probably a large first floor parlour, heated by an end stack on the north.

The north wing is single storey to the north where ground level rises, and two storeys facing the courtyard on the south. The ground floor rooms appear to have served as service rooms with a particularly large fireplace on the east gable end.

The roofs above the north, west and south wings appear to be contemporary, probably of late 16th to early 17th-century date. Although possibly slightly blackened in places, the colouring may be the result of staining rather than soot blackening.

Exterior of the south wing shows two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window front. A gabled two-storey porch to the left of centre was partly demolished in 1959 and rebuilt in the 1970s following an earlier photograph and reusing material. The porch has a moulded granite gabled parapet with scroll kneelers, a segmental arched granite entrance with roll mould and crosses in the spandrels, and a two-light mullion window above. The inner door has a granite frame with chamfered lintel and jambs with diagonal stops. To the left are two two-light mullion windows on the ground floor. To the right are two two-light mullion windows on the ground and first floors with a partly blocked door between them. The right-hand part may be a circa 18th-century extension with a definite straight joint on the front and rear walls. The gabled parapet and scrolled kneelers have probably therefore been reused.

The west elevation is asymmetrical with a three-window front and a straight joint to the right of centre between the west wing and the west end of the south wing. The west wing has two two-light casements flanking a six-panel door with two early 19th-century twenty-pane hornless sashes above. The hipped end to the south wing has a three-light mullion window with hood mould and a twenty-eight-pane sash above.

The north elevation shows a gable end to the north end of the west wing, a hipped end on the right (west) of the north wing, and a gable end on the left (east). Steps lead up to a round arched door opening, which Pevsner suggests may be a Norman arch. There is a small window opening to the basement and a splayed lancet window with chamfered segmental arch to the first floor of the north wing and in the gable end of the west wing, adjoining the first floor fireplace.

In the courtyard there is a lean-to pentice roof over the passage between the south and north wings, and a well on the west side.

Interior features in the south wing include roughly cut wavy ceiling beams in the south wing and in the probable extension on the east. The thick wall on the east side of the passage has two circa 17th-century granite chamfered doorframes with diagonal cut stops, with a similar doorway into the courtyard and another on the north west into the west wing. The back-to-back fireplaces heating the west room of the south wing and south room of the west wing have chamfered granite lintels and jambs with diagonal stops.

The west wing contains remains of a circa 18th-century panelled screen dividing the north and south rooms, and an altered granite fireplace to the north room. The chamber above the west wing, probably used as a best parlour, has a large depressed arched granite fireplace on the north with roll mould and large ball and spade stops. Plasterwork above features a floral motif and the date 1636. To the right of the fireplace are remains of further plasterwork, possibly indicating the earlier existence of a 17th-century barrel vaulted ceiling (now removed) and a tympanum-type arrangement above the fireplace.

The roof structure of the south, west and north wings appears to retain remains of a late 16th to early 17th-century roof structure with morticed apices and dovetailed notched and lap-jointed collars. The circa 18th-century extension on the east of the south wing has one truss which is halved and lap-jointed and pegged at the apex with lapped collars.

Historically, at the end of the 15th century the house was referred to as Farmers House. In 1595 it was granted to Humphry Kempe, Jane his wife and son William for three lives. In 1627 it was sold to Obadiah Reynolds.