Netherton Nursing Home

Netherton Nursing Home, Rodwell Road, Weymouth

A large house, now in use as a nursing home. The building dates from the 17th century with substantial mid-18th-century work. It is constructed in Portland ashlar with some rendered sections and has a slate roof.

The main structure consists of a parallel range forming a three-storey hipped block with parapets to both the front elevation and the return facing Chickerell Road. Although ostensibly of mid-18th-century date, the building encloses earlier 17th-century work which remains visible within.

The main front elevation is five windows wide, with 9 by 12-paned sash windows in flush moulded boxes. The centrepiece features a portico supported on unfluted Ionic columns, with a pulvinated frieze and dentil cornice topped by a closed pediment. Below this is a six-panel part-glazed door set in a moulded architrave. Rendered gable stacks are present, with two further stacks to the rear wall.

The left return has a door at first-floor level approached by a concrete staircase, and two 12-pane sashes at ground-floor level. The rear range projects slightly forward and contains a single four-pane sash window at each level, with keystones. A further wall with blank openings to the parapet and sashes below returns to the left. The right return displays a construction joint, stepped at half-height and not flush at parapet level, with two 12-pane sashes at first-floor level and two blocked windows at ground-floor level.

Interior

The early structural beams noted in the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England survey are now boxed in and no longer visible. Most of the surviving interior detail dates from the 18th century and is of high quality and good condition. Alterations necessitated by the building's conversion to nursing home use have been carried out with minimal disturbance to the original fabric. The former basement has been filled in.

On the ground floor, the former Library features an elliptical recess with keystones and dentil cornice, with a dado of fielded panelling. The fireplace has a frieze with swags, a moulded mantelshelf, and an eared moulded architrave. The rear right room retains working shutters, which in many other rooms are now fixed. This room also has a moulded cornice and a fireplace with a 19th-century cast-iron insert and surround of de Morgan tiles. The inner lobby has a wide elliptical arch with panelled intrados and a keystone. The ground-floor left room contains a deep boxed beam and moulded cornice, as well as lift-up shutters and a fine Rococo fire surround.

The generous open-well staircase, formerly lit from the rear wall, features turned newels and slender turned balusters with a swept handrail and wall dado panelling. The open string has scrolled treads. The first-floor landing displays two 17th-century painted panelled doors, and the outer wall has two arched but blocked openings, one of which is interrupted by the stair. The top landing is distinguished by a wide elliptical arch on the inner wall filled with painted 17th-century panelling and a dentil cornice.

A first-floor front room, known as King George's bedroom, has an egg-and-dart cornice and a stripped pine fire surround decorated with a pair of doves in high relief and Rococo swags, with a marble interior. Another first-floor room features an Art Nouveau fire surround with a mirror topped by an open scrolled pediment and modillion cornice. A third room at this level contains a Rococo fireplace.

Historical Significance

Formerly known as the Old Manor House, Netherton House remains one of the more important surviving early buildings in Weymouth. The care taken in rescuing and refurbishing the property has been recognised by a plaque from the Weymouth Civic Society.